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Indianapolis 



Illustrated. 




A 



Written by Ernest p. Bicknell. 

ii 

Edited by Edgar h. Evans. 



Indianapolis : 
BAKER-RANDOLPH LITHO. AND ENG. CO., 

PKINTKKS, BINDKKS, KNGRAVERS 
AND KLKCTROTYPEKS. 

1893- 



Ah 29 ^^9^ 



r - 



Untekek AccoRKiNi; TO Act or Conckess in the Year 1S93, 

uv 

IIAKKR RANDOI.I'II l.lTIKi AND i:NO. CO.. 

In the Office of the I.iukarian of Conc.ress, 

AT WASItlNC.TllN, I). C. 



To THE Citizens of Indianapolis. 



.WING been impressed with the fact that Indianapolis had grown to be a 
great and important city in culture, vvealtli, manufacture and trade in the 
past ten years, without its own people fully recognizing the extent of the 
growth, our Mr. A. R. Baker applied to the Board of Trade and Commercial Club 
for their indorsement of a book intended to illustrate and bring out clearly to us 
and the world at large, the facts in regard to the wonderful development of this 
city. The request was granted, and under such sanction is issued this book, 
which we offer to your consideration. As all the work has been performed in our 
own establishment, the volume is distinctly an Indianapolis product. 

We have endeavored to secure a treatment which is free from advertising bias in 
favor of any individual, firm or compau) — giving only such as occurs incidental to 
a proper illustration — and have confined the text and engravings to a truthful and 
fair, but forcible representation of the city's interests. 

That Indianapolis should become a great city was perfectly clear to those who 
had studied its advantages: surrounded by the rich and varied resources of the 
great State of Indiana; crossed by all East and West lines of railway between the 
Atlantic and Pacific, and the principal North and vSoutli lines connecting the lakes 
and the gulf; and located in the center of po])ulation of the United States. Thus, 
we have the three essentials to success: resources, transportation, jjopulation. 

There is no location on the globe which combines all of the.se advanl.iges in a 
better proportion than Indianapolis. This is a source of gratification and security, 
and a promise of success to those who may come among us. Let us extend an 
invitation to all strong and vigorous workers or investors to locate in our thriving 
city and State, and reach out with renewed assurance of our continued develop- 
ment under such favored conditions. 

BAKI;R RANDOLI'II LITHO. AND KXG. CO. 

FlCBRT.VKV, 1893. 



CONTBNXS. 



PAGE. 

A Model City 5 

TiiK City's Business Status 19 

Indianapolis as a Railroad Cicntek 41 

General Ri:marks About Resources 51 

Agricultural and Horticultural 51 

Natural Gas 69 

Indiana Coal-Measures 81 

Concerning Stone 87 

Timber Supply loi 

Fuel from the Oil Field 105 

Kaolin, Clay and Glass-Sand 109 

Manufacturing Industries 115 

The Wholesale Trade 131 

The Retail Trade 137 

Banks and Banking 143 

Till-: Union Stock Yards 155 

The Street Railway .System 159 

The Spirit of Impro\"Emi:nt 163 

Our Municipal Government 167 

Savings and Loan Associations 171 

Public Buildings 179 

LiHKARIKS AND LiTlCKAKY SOCIETIES 203 

Churches and Schools 209 



A MODEL CITY. 








wo CO- which are united the physical and civil cou- 
ordiiiate ditions which are necessary to the attain- 
objects raeut of both of the prime objects noted, 
a r e t o In recording for the city of Indian- 

be sought in city life. The one is the apolis a claim to those qualities which 
multiform benefit which the strength of justly entitle it to a place among the 
many interests, crowded into narrow healthiest and best governed and nio.st 
territorial bounds, makes possible ; the prosperous and contented communities 
other, the avoidance of the multiform of the United States, it is not believed 
evil, which the aggregation of thousands there is any unwarrantable assumption 
of human beings upon small areas tends of excellence. This claim, undisputed 
constantly to produce. 

That city which enjoys 
physical advantages favor- 
able to the attainment of 
either of these objects is 
fortunate, and the same is 
true, in a greater degree, of 
a city whose civil condition^ 
are such as to make toward 
happiness and contentment 
and provide against the 
evils of immorality and dis- 
ease. But, if cities having 
either of the advantages of 
the character mentioned are 
to be called fortunate, how 
much more to be congratu- 
lated is that community in 




INDIANAPOLIvS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



by those who best know, is based upon 
no jealous rivalry of other cities, nor 
has it any purpose to inflate values 
of realty; it is based siniplj' and solely 
upon facts easily demonstrated and un- 
answerable. 

In its very inception Indianapolis was 
singularly fortunate. The young State 
of Indiana had just been organized, and 
was without a satisfactory seat of govern- 
ment. The legislature, whicli in earlier 



be new and according to the best and 
most approved designs. The legislative 
committee traveled far and inspected the 
sites advocated by partisans of several 
different localities. Finally a spot was 
selected on the east bank of White River 
where the ground was almost level, was 
drained, not only by the river, but by 
several clear, winding streams, and was 
covered by a massive growth of forest 
trees. Here the infant capital was 







View from Stock Yards, Looking North. 



days had met at the old French trading 
post of Vincennes, assembled at Cory- 
don for some years after the State was 
admitted into the Union. The necessity 
of a capital near the center of the State 
was clear, but no town then existed near 
the center. The result was a determina- 
tion to create a capital. No old village, 
with tortuous, narrow streets, whose 
direction and width had been subject to 
the whims of individual settlers, was to 
handicap the town. Everything was to 



located, and no pains were spared to 
make it convenient and beautiful. A 
square mile was included in the plat of 
the city prepared at that time, when 
hardly a human habitation broke the 
primeval wilderness. 

The streets were laid out wide and 
straight. In the exact center of the 
square mile was formed a circular park, 
surrounded by a street called Circle 
street. p-rom this circle radiated four 
great avenues, to the northeast, south- 



'-S 



7 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. vS. A. 9 

east, southwest and northwest, respect- daj' by men, of whom many were pio- 

ively. Everything was done upon a gen- neers, possessing little experience or 

erous scale, which showed far-seeing knowledge of cities, should have been of 

sagacit>- upon the part of the city's a character that could hardly be ini- 

founders, and which has put an obliga- proved upon to-day by people who have 




On North JIkkidian Strekt. 

tion of gratitude upon all who have spent their lives in cities. The explana- 

enjoyed the fruits of that sagacity in the tion of this is to be found in the choice 

three-quarters of a century which has of Alexander Ralston to prepare plans 

since elapsed. It is remarkable that the for the new capital. Ralston was a civil 

plans for the city .selected in that early engineer of note, who had assisted in 









'i^^ 



Pork a.nd Fruit Packi.ng District. 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. vS. A. 



II 



laying out Washing-ton, and many of coniniunity or im])rove(l agricultural re- 
the ideas exemplified in the Nation's gion, the wonder is that the found- 
Capital were reproduced in the streets, ers of Indianapolis thought it necessary 
whose courses were now blazed on the to lay off so much ground into streets as 
forest trees on the banks of White they did, rather than that they did not 
River. When the plans were completed, dedicate sufficient area to the future 
the same broad and liberal spirit which city's occupation. In order that through 
caused them to meet with instant favor all time it might be known that the city 
led to a generous system of nomencla- had been founded for 



a .seat of government 
for the vState of Indi- 
ana, it was named In- 
dianapolis, that is, In- 
diana City. 

It was designed 
that in Circle Park, 
which was the exact 
center of the original 
square mile, should 
stand the executive 
mansion. This was 
in entire accord with 



square. Set as it was in 
the woods, near no great 



river or lake, 
with railroads 
not yet dreamed 
of, .separated by 
scores of miles 
from any well- 
settled country 




ture for the streets. The principal north 
and south street, dividing the square 
mile into two equal parts, was named 
Meridian, its name thus explaining its 
direction to any stranger hearing it. 
The principal east and west street was 
called Washington, for the great man 
whose life and face were then familiar to 
thousands. The other streets of the city 
were named after the States of the 
Union, except the four which bounded 
the .square mile of the city ]ilat. These, 
whose names ex])lain their ])osition, were 
called North, East, South and West streets. 

The meti who thus majjped out 
a city in the mid.st of a wilderness 
made one mi.stake. They seem not 
to have thought of its ever be- 
coming large enough to spread 
beyond the limits of a mile Y'fc'l'f |jtf / 



Union St.vtio.n. 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



the remainder of the comprehensive plans 
of the nieu in control. Their idea, 
briefly expressed, was : In the center of 
the State the capital; in the center of the 
capital the Governor; thus not only mak- 
ing the Governor the center and head 
of the government of the commonwealth, 
but also the center of the State itself. 
To-day this particular part of the great 
design seems more fanciful and poetic 
than useful, and that this came to be 
the general impression before many years 
had elapsed was proven by the fact that 
Indiana's Governors abandoned the plain. 



square house which stood in the precise 
center of Circle Park and preferred to 
live in other parts of the city. They 
complained that the executive mansion 
was inconvenient and uncomfortable and 
not pleasantly situated as a place of resi- 
dence. For a number of years the house 
was used for public oflBces, but gradually 
fell into disuse, and was finally torn 
down and the park converted to the 
public benefit. It has furnished a charm- 
ing breathing space in the heart of the 
city ever since. 

Another feature of the plan of those 




Public School, No. 2. 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



13 



who prepared for the city's birth, was 
that the business center ol the commu- 
nity should be at the crossing of Merid- 
ian and Washington streets. This has 
been fulfilled to the letter. To-day the 
roar of the traffic of the city is loudest 
at that crossing : the price of property is 
greatest at the four corners which the 
crossing forms, and declines in all direc- 
tions from it ; at that point the wholesale 
district touches hands with the retail 

,jf= K, .'-^ ^^^I'&^f- 



body of water. In order that there 
might be ample room for the commerce 
which it was hoped would be carried on, 
Washington street was made one hun- 
dred and twenty feet wide, and the great 
diagonal avenues, which from their direc- 
tion and arrangement were destined to 
become the chief arteries of communica- 
tion with the heart of the city, were 
made ninety feet wide. 

The foundations of Indiana's capital 




district, and the va.st tide of business 
which ever connects the two, flows with 
a constant rumble about the adjacent 
.streets. The principal blocks of the city 
clu-ster within a few squares of this 
crossing, and as commerce grows and 
overflows its quarters, the first necessity 
for enlargement and improvement is felt 
in the vicinity of this spot and .spreads 
abroad like concentric waves upon a 



thus laid broad and deep, the .super- 
structure began to rise. But this was, 
in the verj- nature of things, slow. There 
was no surrounding cultivated country to 
draw upon. Between Indianapolis and 
the sources of its supplies stretched a 
hundred miles of roads hardly better than 
foot-paths, and the only means of trans- 
portation was by horseback or wagon. 
The young city could not grow until 



INDIANArOIJvS, INDIANA, U. vS. A. 



15 



the countr}' round ahout was developed. 
In 1820 the town was laid out, but it was 
not until 1824 that it had grown suffic- 
iently to enable it to lodge and feed the 
members of the State government and 
the legislature. Accordingly, in 1.S24, it 
became the capital, although its popula- 
tion was numbered by scores, a hundred 
being altogether too great a unit of 



commercial and industrial growth of the 
greatest inland city on the continent. 
This is well shown l)y the population 
statistics. In the first twenty-five years 
of the city's history the ]i()inilation did 
not reach five thousand. Then the rail- 
road building began, and the close of 
the second twenty-five years saw a city 
of fortv-eight thousand souls. The close 




PRKSinUNT Harrison's Residence. 



enumeration. In 1840, the pojHilalion 
had grown to but 2,692, and, in truth, it 
was not until the building of the rail- 
road from the Ohio River at Madison to 
Indianapolis, several years later, that the 
city's promise of commercial importance 
began to be appreciated. . The day the 
first railroad train rolled into Indianapo- 
lis was the actual commeucemenl of the 



of the third quarter of a century, three 
years hence, will find Indianapolis con- 
taining a population of one hundred and 
fifty thousand. In this growth may be 
read the promise of the future: In the 
twenty-five years from 1845 to 1S70, an 
increase of forty-five thou.sand iu popu- 
lation ; in the same length of time, from 
1870 to 1895, a growth of eighty-five 



i6 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. vS. A. 



thousand. At this rate of increase, the 
growth during the twenty-five years from 
1895 to 1920, will be one hundred and 
seventy-five thousand, making the city's 
population in the latter year three hun- 
dred and twenty thousand. But, history 
has shown that cities increase with a 
constantly accelerating rapidity, so that 
the larger they become the faster they 
grow. The rolling up of a great snow- 
ball by the boys at play is a familiar 
comparison, but it illustrates this well. 
In view of this established law of the 



growth of cities, a conservative estimate 
of the population of Indianapolis at the 
end of another quarter of a century is 
three hundred and fifty thousand persons. 
Now the achievement of this remarka- 
ble building up of population can not be 
traced to any single cause. The laying 
out of a handsome and convenient plan 
for the city alone could have onh- a 
minor influence in this result. The fact 
that Indianapolis is the capital of the 
State is also of secondary importance 
among the factors of its growth, though 




iNSTITlTi; lOK Thk Hi.inu. 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



17 



an influence not to be underestimated. 
The truth is that Indianapolis has grown 
up with due attention to all the influ- 
ences which cause cities to exist and 
which make them desirable places of 
habitation. She has sprung from no 
great mining "boom;" no .special branch 
of manufacture ; no particular kind of 
traffic; no single predominating influence, 
such as has caused a mushroom growth 
of cities strong in some few points of 
greatness, but lacking in all others. She 
is symmetrical in all her members. Her 
manufactures are extensive and varied ; 
her commerce is comprehensive in variet)^ 
and territory penetrated ; her railroads 
reach great forests of hard and soft 
woods and limitless beds of stone, coal, 
kaolin and cla}' for architectural uses ; 
she is in the center of as rich an agri- 



cultural region as the sun shines upon, 
an area covering an hundred thousand 
square miles ; she is blest with the finest 
fuel that nature ever made ; the enor- 
mous traffic between the manufacturing 
East and the agricultural West passes, in 
large part, through her portals, and the 
same is true of the great carrying trade 
between the North and South. The 
beauty of the city's symmetry is shown 
especially in this, that with all this ma- 
terial progress her intellectual and moral 
development has kept even step. In her 
schools, her literary men, her artists, her 
societies for mental culture, her churches, 
her charities, her appreciation of the better 
and higher things in life, she may be 
seen to advantage, no less than in her 
industrial and commercial achievements. 
She is, in fact, a model American city. 




'^■f^':^^ 




HoARii oi- Tkadp: Rini.Dixc. 




./Meridian 5t 



NDIANAPOLIS 

to-day stands 
upon the 
threshold of 
what is destined to be a great commer- 
cial expansion. As a city she has not 
been premature nor hasty in realizing 
upon her opportunities. She has, if you 
please, been slow to grasp the possibili- 
ties which have been within her reach. 
A result of this has been that she has 
grown solidly, like the oak, and not 
like the mushroom of a night. She 
has taken no step forward until sure of 
her footing. There was a period, a score 
of years ago, when Indianapolis enjoyed 



a " boom." She fancied that she was to 
become a mighty city almost at a bound. 
There followed three or four years which, 
retrospectively considered, seem now to 
have been characterized by a species of 
madness, whereof, when men were seized, 
they lost their sense of the real values 
and relations of things to one another. 
Fictitious values were compared to their 
own kind ; and, losing their anchorage 
in the haven of unchanging fact, men 
drifted wildly upon an ocean of specula- 
tion. Remembered events of that per- 
iod seem like grotesque phantasms, as 
thought of in the calm, matter-of-fact 
atmo.sphere of to-day. Naturally these 




o 



«- t^ 



o- 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



conditions could not long continue, and 
the time soon came when the truth 
regained its own, and all the ventures of 
the speculators went ujion the rocks, 
leaving disaster and financial panic in 
their wake. 

The lesson was a severe one ; but 
Indianapolis had learned it, and has 
never forgotten it. The seductive allure- 
ments of speculation have never again 
had the power to lead her away from 
the safe shores. She has seen Western 
cities spring up like magic, and has 
heard their boasts with no feeling of 
envy. She knows 
that the laws of 
nature do not pro- 
vide for giving 
aught of value for 
nothing, and that 
the giant j'oung 
cities of the West 
will, in the end, 
pay well for their 
unsubstantial 
prosperity. Hav- 
ing thoroughly 
mastered these 
facts in the school 
of experience, In- 
dianapolis has 
ever since been 
too conservative 
rather than other- 
wise. Her mon- 
eyed men liaA-e 
hesitated to em- 
bark in new enter- 
prises, or to en- 



courage any project which smacked of 
speculation or uncertainty. The city has 
grown enormously meantime, trebling in 
population since the collapse of the 
"boom." The result of these conditions is 
that here is a large, wealth)' and flourish- 
ing city which has outgrown its commer- 
cial and industrial and financial institu- 
tions. Natural growth and upspringing 
enterprises have overtaken the conserva- 
tism which has held back the business 
of the cit}-, and are crowding hard upon 
its heels. In simple truth, the daj' is 
now at hand when natural and inevitable 





growth demands enlarged facilities for the exercise of 

new, expanding energies. For 3-ears the city of 

Indianapolis has grown in spite of itself. From 

this time on the checks to its expansion will be 

cast aside, and every healthfnl tendency to 

improvement will receive the stimulns of 

public favor. In a word, the new policy 

of encouragement is succeeding the old 

policy of discouragement. But let it not 

be feared that the reaction from 

years of repression may lead to the 

opposite extreme. The memory 

of the bubble and its collapse 

twenty years ago is indelibly * 

impressed upon the history 

of the community, and its 

lesson is never forgotten 

for a day. Obstacles 

to progress are being 

hurled aside, it is 

true, but cautious 

hands are ever 

on the brakes. 



To quicken the 
city's awakening 
Jr and stinuilate her 
^ rapid but solid growth, 
several agencies have 
contributed in addition to 
the natural process of evo- 
lution described above. Chief 
of these is the comprehensive 
development of the mineral and 
agricultural resources in the terri- 
torj- around and adjacent to her. 
She is the geogra])liical and railroad 
center of an agricultural region which, 
in fertility and in its state of cultivation, is 
unsurpassed on the globe. She is within a 
few miles of the center of population of the 
United States, and is surrounded by a class of 
farmers who have been successful in carving com- 
fortable e.states out of the crude materials which they 
found in the West half a century and less ago. The 




Looking Down Massachusetts Avenue. 



territory in the center of which Indian- to Indianapolis to make her their market 

apolis is situated, has become the seat and source of supplies. 
of a prosperous and happy people. In But these agricultural and some of the 

every direction the agricultural districts jnineral resources on which Indianapolis 




Residence, North Delaware Street. 

and urban communities thrive in the now draws, and will draw very much 

midst of a great abundance. Both soil more heavily in the brighter day dawn- 

and rocks yield wealth, and full four ing, may be said to be but food for 

million human beings live near enough industries. There must also be the 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



25 



agencies of mastication, digestion and 
assimilation. The mere presence or 
accessibilit}' of food can not avail much 
to a man or a city unless there be the 
macliinery of reduction and reformation. 
What, then, is to be said of the forces 
and agencies which Indianapolis com- 
mands for the economical and profitable 
"working up" of the raw material 
crowding her gates? The answer to 
this question brings into direct view, 
perhaps more than an}'' other approach 
to the subject could, some of the most 



part. With the city as a point of di- 
vergence they radiate like some giant 
web, enclosing in its meshes bustling 
towns and smiling farm lands and dis- 
tricts rich in mineral deposits. Over these 
roads the vast produce of the farm lands 
and quarries and mines is poured into 
the city in an unceasing .stream. Much 
of it is converted from the raw material 
into the manufactured product before 
leaving the city, thereby sustaining ex- 
tensive indu.stries. But along this line 
there is opportunity for almost limitless 




unmistakable evidences that the city is expansion without going beyond the dead 

entering upon an era of substantial and line of profit and lo.ss. Mills for the 

rapid commercial and industrial growth, manufacture of flour and other grain 

In this the railways play an essential products are operated here with much 



26 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



success. The largest single winter wheat 
mill and the most extensive mill for man- 
ufacturing corn products in the United 
States, are in Indianapolis. But the field 



hogs which pass through the Union Stock 
Yards daily in season, not the half nor 
the third is slaughtered in Indianapolis. 
And so the list might be lengthened al- 




Kk.sidenck, North ]Mkkii)i.\n Stkkkt. 



is not full, nor half full. Every grain 
mill in the city is prospering, and were 
there as many more, or twice as many 
more, the conditions for all would be 
more favorable than for those now in op- 
eration. The .same is true in the pork 
packing industry. The third greatest 
pork packing establishment in the world 
is in Indianapolis, and its large profits 
are proverbial. There are other extensive 
packing-houses, aLso, and they too pros- 
per. But of the tens of thousands of 



most indefinitely were it necessary to 
demonstrate the opportunities which lie 
open here for incoming enterprise. 

The agencies to be considered in a 
further discussion of this subject may 
conveniently be divided into the two 
classes of direct and indirect. Under 
the head of direct agencies are to be 
mentioned the abundance and cheapness 
of fuel, the shipping facilities, the pros- 
perity and stability of the wage-earning 
classes and the moderate cost of living. 



Mm THE INDIAyAPOT.T S NEWS 1 



EDinos 






INDIANAPOLIS TIltJRSDAY EVENING. OCTOBEIl 20. 1892 



GREAT IS CHICAGO. gggs^r^^HiSi^-r-Ss/'HS TO COLUMliLS. :S=~;S' r" 

ll>* ..|.-ir..-l .1 ,. '.[.„,, bul]J«»,"'l'chl(«^."*«u' 

"•» 'I-' " -. "'-■■■' ■■"■Hen Till Unltoini lUnk of if 



'"uin'!S^ 



CONVERTS TO CLEVELAMD 




28 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



Ill all these regards Indianapolis chal- 
lenges comparison with any other city in 
the Union. She does this in no spirit of 
bluster or bravado. She cites her natural 
gas, her petroleum and her coal. 

The pipe-line companies which con- 
vej' the gas from the field to the city are 
in the soundest finan- 
cial condition, and 
stand read)- to do 
their part in for- 



vestment of outside money was made, it 
was restricted by the co-operative experi- 
ment. Four years, however, have suf- 
ficed to carry the experiment to a suc- 
cessful issue, and while its effect has so 
far been to retard the industrial develop- 
ment which the city might have enjoyed 
under certain other conditions, it has, at 
least, been of substantial benefit to the 
small consumer of gas. To-day the dis- 
advantages which accompanied the co- 




An E.\st Side Brewery. 



warding public interests. The city has 
experienced some delay in realizing upon 
the .splendid opportunities which the pres- 
ence of natural gas created. A popular 
co-operative movement checked the in- 
rush of large foreign capital which was 
anticipated, and though an extensive in- 



operative effort have vanished. Both the 
large companies engaged in supplying 
gas to the city are now conducted on 
well established business principles. Both 
are out of debt, have extended their 
sources of supply until they are equal to 
the demands made on them, and are in a 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



29 



position to meet the increasing consump- 
tion which accompanies the cit}''s growth. 
With all its other advantages the gas is 
cheap. Its price is regulated by a city 
ordinance which, while it allows the earn- 
ing of heavy profits by the companies, 
yet keeps the cost to the consumer far 
below that of any other fuel. The utili- 
zation of crude oil for fuel was an ex- 
periment five 3'ears ago ; to-daj' it is a 
well established and widely demonstrated 
fact. By special contrivances for prop- 
erly introducing the oil into furnaces, 
the flame is rendered clean, inodorous 
and of intense heat. It is as easily con- 
trolled, too, as gas. Were natural gas 
iinknown, crude oil would be regarded 
as almost a perfect fuel. Already oil has 
been introduced under the boilers of sev- 
eral large manufacturing concerns in In- 
dianapolis with gratifying results. At 
present it is shipped to the city in tank 
cars, the run from the oil field requiring 
about six hours. The expansion of the 
demand for oil will result in the con- 
struction of an oil pipe line directly from 
the field to the city. As to the coal 
supply, it looms in the background, an 
unfailing reserve on which to draw in 
case of a failure or decline in the supply 
of the more volatile and desirable fuels 
which have at present usurped its place. 
Much of the sturdy prosperity of the 
city is due to her railroads, and with her 
growth in population and extension of 
business, their importance to her will 
increase. There is a degree of interde- 
pendence between railroads and the man- 
ufacturing and mercantile interests which. 



while always present, is greatly subject to 
varj'ing conditions. In a city with but 
a single railroad, the merchant and man- 
ufacturer are compelled to submit often 
to inferior service and always to extor- 
tionate transportation rates, while in the 
city with numerous roads, the shippers are 
comparatively independent, being assured 
of prompt service and reasonable rates 
through the rivalry of the transporta- 
tion companies in their struggle to se- 
cure business. An excellent illustration 
of this has recently been brought to the 
public attention. The proprietor of a 
grain reducing mill in which is invested 
hundreds of thousands of dollars, and 
which gives employment to hundreds of 
men, removed his vast establishment 
from one of the smaller cities of the 
State to Indianapolis chiefly to secure 
the advantages of its unsurpassed rail- 
road service. The conclusion that in 
the city with numerous railroads, the 
general prosperity must be far greater 
than in the city with few or but one, 
common sense shows to be the cor- 
rect one. These facts, in truth, are 
so commonly recognized that they 
have almost become axiomatic. They 
are called, to mind here simply to con- 
nect them directly with that other fact 
that Indianapolis has transportation facil- 
ities which in point of competition, of 
equipment, of wide ramifications, of short 
lines to the greatest cities and through 
the greatest agricultural and mineral 
regions, are uuequaled on the continent. 
This is a strong assertion, but it is made 
with an abiding faith that it is true in 




^•***^ ,i 



M 




i 
t 
1 ■ ■ ■< 


Kl;i ^bH 




' ' 




INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



31 



every particular and can be demon- 
strated. It should not be forgotten, 
either, that the value of the railroads to 
the invested interests of the cit}' is a 
double one. The merchant not only may 
secure the most advantageous rates upon 
the wares which he imports, but the rail- 
roads enlarge enormously the terri- 



chants. Every step in the rapid expan- 
sion of the industries, based on the nat- 
ural resources of the State, enlarges and 
improves the markets which naturally be- 
long to the Indianapolis merchants. The 
vigor and swiftness with which the natu- 
ral wealth of Indiana is being developed, 
is described at length on other pages. 




Bates House. 



tory in which he may sell his goods. 
The development of the industries in 
the stone, coal, gas and oil fields 
brings into compact centers large and 
prosperous bodies of workmen and tlieir 
families. These communities, in direct 
communication with Indianapolis, present 
an attractive and open field for her mer- 



What is true of the merchants, in 
regard to the expanding markets for 
their goods all around the city, is equally 
true of the maiuifacturers. An immense 
demand for supplies of many kinds 
comes from the busy territory which 
surrounds the city and in large degree 
is dependent upon it. Stone channelers, 



32 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



stationary, portable and traction engines, 
drills, derricks, rope, chains, powder, dj'na- 
mite, miners' tools, lumber, iron and steel 
tubing, hoisting machinery for mines, oils 
of various kinds, carts, wagons, trucks, 
carriages, cars, gas pipes of all sizes and 
in limitless quantit)^ apparatus for drill- 
ing gas and oil wells, tanks, pumps, wind- 
mills, harvesting machinery, threshers, 
plows, wheat drills, cultivators, and a vast 
variety of other agricultural implements, 
chemicals, cured meats, flouring mills, 



ufacturer who would supply the ceaseless 
demands which come up from this indus- 
trial territory and to him who would pur- 
chase its mineral and agricultural prod- 
ucts to convert them into finished wares, 
Indianapolis offers the best of all loca- 
tions. The universal prosperitj- which 
has accompanied the manufactories now 
here is one very striking proof of the 
truth of this assertion. For several years 
the rule among Indianapolis manufact- 
urers has been to enlarge their estab- 




WlNTER W 

saw-mills, feed-mills, niachine-.shop equip- 
ments, electric lights and motors, roofing 
materials, and an almost endless list of 
other manufactured articles are constant, 
never satisfied necessities. Indianapolis 
is in a position to answer these calls as 
no other can ever hope to be. She is 
the natural base of supplies for all the 
great and growing region around her, 
and is the natural market toward which 
its scores of busy communities turn with 
their wealth of raw material. To the mau- 



HE.\T MlI,LS. 

lishnients every twelve or twenty -four 
months. The expansion of their business 
has brought a steadily recurring dt-mand 
for more room and greater facilities. It 
is not believed that there is a city in the 
country which can show a higher average 
prosperity among its manufacturers in the 
last five years than can Indianapolis. 

The items of cost in living, and the 
prosperity of the wage-earning classes in 
Indianapolis, may be considered together. 
All things have combined to make the 



INDIANAPOUS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



33 



necessary living expenses in the city 
moderate. The fertility and extent of the 
agricultural region immediately around 
the city has been an important element 
in this. The level, high ground upon 
which the city is located has also had an 
essential part in producing the prevailing 



others. In every direction from the busi- 
ness heart of the community, therefore, 
the people live, not from necessity, but 
from preference. So wide a choice pre- 
cludes the exorbitant rents which must 
always prevail where any particular por- 
tion of a city is preferable to all others 




Vance Block. 

conditions, becau.se it allows so wide a from sanitary or other reasons, and, also, 

choice in the location of residence addi- prevents real estate from reaching unrea- 

tions. There is no single section of the .sonable prices. With a circle of fine, 

city more suitable for residence than high, well -drained land always surround- 



J - U PI J 





O 

X 

H 

0! 

o 






INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



35 



ing the city, and inviting to suburban 
improvement, prices can not be forced 
above fair values. The result is that 
rents and real values in Indianapolis are 
lower than in any other city of similar 
size in the country. 

A direct effect of these favorable con- 
ditions is seen in the lower wages paid 
working men in Indianapolis than in 
other large cities. L,et it not be under- 
stood that this means an oppre-ssion of 
the employed classes ; on the contrary, it 
is not believed that in any city in the 
country is labor better rewarded or more 
prosperous and contented. In cases 
wherein labor organizations fix the 
remuneration themselves which their 
members are paid, they allow lower 
wages in Indianapolis than in many 
large cities. The reason for this is that 
a dollar will go farther in payment of 
living expenses in this than in other 
cities. Following along the same line of 
inquir}', it is found that a surprisingly 
large per cent, of the wage earners 
of the city own their homes. So 
prominently has this come to be recog- 
nized that Indianapolis is frequently 
.styled the "City of Homes." Through 
the beneficent influence of building asso- 
ciations, thousands of working men in 
Indianapolis possess comfortable homes 
and are numbered among the substan- 
tial, tax-paying, conservative class of the 
population. No one understands the 
value of this fact better than the em- 
ployer of labor. He knows full well 
that the workman who owns real estate 
or has a little money in bank is not the 



labor agitator. He is the last man to 
strike, is always an advocate of peaceable 
and conservative mea.sures, has fair ideas 
of the rights of capital, respects the laws 
and holds a power for good over the 
drifting, shiftless, and sometimes reckless 
element, which may exert an undue 
influence in any body of employes. So 
general has the custom become for the 
wage earner to live in his own house, 
that there has grown up what might be 
called the saving habit among the em- 
ployed classes. No sooner does the 
young man secure work at the usual 
wages, than he enters a building associa- 
tion and begins to lay by a portion of 
his income every w^eek in anticipation of 
the day when he will need a home. 
The extent to which this practice is car- 
ried is shown in the statement that there 
are nearly one hundred building associa- 
tions in Indianapolis, and that the stock 
actually carried by shareholders amounts 
to the enormous sum of $20,000,000. 
This stock is carried by about 35,000 
different per.sons. Certainly no more 
convincing proof of the prosperity of the 
wage-earning classes could be asked 
than this. 

Another . force in Indianapolis which 
is destined to augment in great degree 
the stability and efficiency of wage earn- 
ers, and elevate the character of their 
.services in intelligence and value, is the 
admirable manual training system carried 
on in connection with the public schools. 
The boy, while educating his mind, is 
educating his hands. Without extra 
cost, he enjoys the advantages of the 



36 



INDIANAPOLLS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



best of instruction in the mechanic arts 
and the use of standard tools and 
InachinerJ^ The purpose of the school 
is not simply to teach the boy a trade. 
He could get that as an apprentice. It 
is intended to teach him the underlying 
principles of things at the same time he 
is acquiring a knowledge of the tools 
with which he is to work. When a bo)' 
completes his course, he not only can 
produce creditable workmanship, but he 
can make his own drawings ; can plan 
accurately what is the proper material to 
use, and how much of it ; he will be 



and becomes a co-worker. The emploj-er 
can afford to pa}- him well, because he 
is worth more, twice over, than the man 
who picked his trade up in an unsys- 
tematic, disconnected way, and knows 
only the drudgery of it, relying on the 
foreman to do the thinking for him. 

There are thoughtful men who see in 
education the solution of the labor prob- 
lem. Lift the wage earner out of his 
ignorance and prejudice and narrow 
manner of life, these men argue, and the 
difficulties which threaten to overturn 
the indu.strial system will vanish, while 




Starch Works. 

able to compute the strain which will any changes dictated by experience in 

fall upon the various parts of a machine the relations between employer and em- 

or structure of any kind which he ployed will be achieved as smoothly as 

may build: he will have a working water adjusts itself to inequalities of 

knowledge of physics and chemistry .surface. This attractive theory, it is 

and higher mathematics. An arti- believed, will in time be in some degree 

sail who has had such a training as put into practice in Indianapolis, the 

this school gives, as a foundation for chief agency in introducing the desirable 

his trade, is able to carry an important conditions hoped for being the city's 

work from beginning to end, without manual training .system. It is not com- 

the constant supervision and direction monly understood how extensive arc the 

ordinarily essential among bodies of resources of this department of the 

workmen. He is valuable above all school system. Were such a school 

other classes of labor to his employer, endowed by private means with a fouu- 

He rises above the plane of the menial dation of one million dollars, interest in 



38 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA. U. S. A. 



the institution and comment upon its 
promising future would be aroused all 
over the country. This precise endow- 
ment the school has in effect. The stat- 
ute creating the technic school in Indian- 
apolis authorizes the conversion of a 
revenue to its maintenance as great as 
would be produced from an endowment 
of one million dollars. 

The indirect agencies which may be 
counted upon to be of assistance in the 
era of business expansion which is dawn- 
ing upon Indianapolis are numerous. 
Two which are worthy of especial men- 
tion are the banking facilities and a 
public spirit friendly to incoming invest- 
ment and enterprise. The banks of 
the city are considered thoroughly safe. 
In all the panics and heavy failures in 
Eastern cities in 3'ears, when Western 
banks, through unfortunate connections, 
have fallen, when money was locked up 
and loans were called in, the Indian- 
apolis banks have stood unshaken. Not 
a breath of suspicion has been whispered 
concerning the .soundness of any of them. 
As an evidence of the new leaven which 
is now working in the cit^-, the fact may 
be cited that the bank clearings are 
increasing at the rate of over fifty per 
cent, per annum, and the deposits almost 
as fast. The banks bear the reputation 
of being liberal, though entirely legiti- 
mate in their methods. 

The attitude of public .sentiment in- 
evitably has much to do with the pop- 
ularity of a city as a location for the 
investment of capital from abroad. Cap- 
ital is proverbially sluggish in its move- 



ments, and cautious in the extreme. It 
is not likely to go where it is not 
wanted, or where it may be burdened 
unjustlj- or fettered by petty legal enact- 
ments. Indianapolis was never disposed 
to repel foreign capital, or to burden it 
heavily in any way. But there was a 
period during the lethargy which suc- 
ceeded the disastrous panic of the sev- 
enties, when no effort was made to 
induce capital to come to Indianapolis, 
and no welcoming hand or word was 
extended when it came. That period is 
gone by. The city is awake in everj- 
fiber. She not onlj' welcomes capital 
to-day, but goes abroad inviting it to 
come. She can offer it advantages to be 
found nowhere else, and takes distinct 
pleasure in publishing the fact to the 
world, repeating it and ringing the 
changes upon it. The Board of Trade 
and the Commercial Club are organized 
expressions of this sentiment. The Com- 
mercial Club, with its one thousand 
members, sprang into existence with the 
public weal its .sole object. The Board 
of Trade is the older and more conserva- 
tive body. Each organization fills its 
place, and is essential. The two are not 
rivals ; they are supplementary to each 
other. The j-ounger body is impulsive, 
vigorous, full of spirit and ambition. 
The older is no less vigorous or ambi- 
tious, but it is not impulsive. It is 
staid, and moves more .slowly. It might 
be said to represent the second thought 
of the community, while the Commercial 
Club expresses the impulses and aspira- 
tions. Both are financiallv of the highest 




3^ 



40 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



4f 



standing, and are fine examples of the 
result of public spirit controlled b}" great 
administrative ability. Both spare neither 
pains nor expense to forward the city's 
interests, and both are themselves the 
best of advertisements of the citj^'s spirit 
and commercial aggfressiveness. Capital 
is invited to come, and is assured a 
royal welcome when it accepts the invi- 
tation. But, while the welcome is hearty, 
it can be onlj' a manifestation of good 
will ; it can not assure profits nor 
declare dividends. It is upon the solid, 
unchanging mercantile and industrial 
advantages which the citj' has to offer 
that incoming capital must ultimatel}' 
depend. To these the city confidently 
refers ail comers, complacent in the 
knowledge that the}' can not be excelled 
elsewhere. 

The spirit of progress has pervaded 
Indianapolis from circumference to cen- 



ter. It may be felt in the air. It is 
made manifest in the great movement 
toward better municipal government ; in 
the inauguration of an extensive and 
costly system of street paving ; in the 
preparation and adoption of a compre- 
hensive scheme of sewerage ; in the im- 
provement in the character of the busi- 
ness buildings erected : in the expansion 
of the city's retail and wholesale dis- 
tricts ; in the widespread quickening in 
the manufacturing interests; in the 
beginning of a .series of massive viaducts 
to span the railwaj-s passing through 
the city ; in the demand for improved 
.street car facilities, including rapid tran- 
sit ; in the general introduction of elec- 
tricity, not only for light, but power ; 
in the unanimous demand for a better 
and more attractive and cleaner and 
handsomer city than Indianapolis has 
ever been before. 




INDIANAPOLIS AS A RAILROAD CENTER. 




^_l^ ION "^Station- 





M' 



ORE than to an)- other single in- 
fluence, Indianapolis owes her pros- 
perity to railroads. As has before been 
remarked, her historj' as a place of com- 
mercial and industrial importance began 
with the completion of her first railroad, 
the old Madison line, which connected 
the capital with the Ohio River, and 
thence by water with the outside world. 



This was slow and circuitous, to be sure, 
but it was so wonderful an improvement 
over all that had gone before that busi- 
ness sprang with a bound into an activ- 
ity' which the town had never more than 
dreamed of before. There are many 
persons living in Indianapolis to-da}', and 
persons good for years of life )'et, who 
were in the crowd which gathered to 
.see the first train come in on the new 
road. What an incredible advance has 
been made in the less than half a cen- 
tury which has elapsed since that day ! 
Instead of one road without connections, 
the city now has sixteen roads, radiating 
in every direction, and, with their con- 
necting lines, giving Indianapolis direct 
communication with every corner of the 
continent. 

It were not easy to speak too highly 
of the importance of the city of Indian- 
apolis as a railway center. Roads extend 
in every direction, and are numerous 
enough to insure competition in all. The 
sixteen lines entering the city are the 
Panhandle, to Pittsburg and the East ; 
the Jeffersonville, Madison & Indian- 
apolis ; the Big Four (C, C, C. & St. h.), 
to Cincinnati ; the Big Four, to Colum- 
bus ; the Big Four, to Cleveland : the 
Cincinnati, Hamilton & Indianapolis ; the 
Vandalia ; the Louisville, New Albany & 
Chicago ; the Indianapolis & Vincennes ; 
the Cincinnati, Wabash «5c Michigan ; the 
Pennsylvania, to Chicago ; the Lake Erie 



42 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



& Western ; the Big Four, to Chicago ; 
the Peoria & Eastern ; the Indianapolis 
& St. Louis ; the Indianapolis, Decatur 
& Western. These roads are so situated 
that' iu whatever direction passengers or 
freight may be transported, they receive 
the advantage of competition, and have 
a choice of routes. To the north, five 
roads are to be selected from ; to the 
east, the shipper may choose among six 
roads ; to the south, five roads are open 
and competing for business ; to the west, 
choice may be made from nine routes. 




A Distributing Warehouse. 



The advantage which this intense com- 
petition offers to shippers need only be 
mentioned to be appreciated by men of 
experience. 

As a distributing point for manufac- 
turers and others whose products or 
wares must go to all parts of the coun- 
try no city in the United States offers 
equal opportunities. The location of the 
city midwa^' between the East and West 
and the North and South gives it pecu- 
liar strength as a center of di.stribution. 
Goods loaded upon the cars in Indian- 
apolis reach their destination, 
on an average, quicker than 
from any other city in the 
country, and, consequently, at 
smaller average tran.sportation 
charges. While shipment from 
surrouuding cities may reach 
certain sections of the country 
more quickly than from here, 
from no other point will the 
average time be so short. The 
importance of Indianapolis in 
this particular has not been 
fully appreciated ; but within a 
year or two, extensive manu- 
facturers in Chicago and other 
cities have established distrib- 
uting stations here. The city 
is destined to grow to large 
importance iu this as its facili- 
ties become better understood. 
Reverse now the view, and 
regard Indianapolis, not as a 
distributing center from which 
railroads lead to every point of 
the compa.ss, but, instead, con- 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



43 



sider it as a great central station into 
which lines of railroad from the remotest 
corners of the country directly extend. 
Here unfolds to the mind a vast new 
field of contemplation. Indianapolis, by 
the same agency which makes it a great 
base of distribution, becomes a focus for 
the wares and products of the entire 
country. The North and South, the 
East and West, meet quickest and most 
equitably here, with a fair division of 
the costs of transportation. The varied 
materials which are united in manufact- 
ured wares can be most cheajily and 
quickly assembled here. Capital is, first 
of all, conservative and slow to move, 
and the opportunities which the chief 
city in Indiana offers in recent years for 
its profitable and safe investment are 
only fairly begun to be realized. All the 
advantage which obtains from being in 
close and ready communication with other 
cities Indianapolis is fitted especiall}' to 
give. She is encircled by a chain of 
cities, all within a few hours' travel of 
her. See the links in that chain : Chi- 
cago, St. Louis, Evansville, Louisville, 
Cincinnati, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Cleve- 
land, Toledo, Detroit and Grand Rapids. 
All are connected with the central city 
by direct lines of railway, and in a great 
many instances the shortest route from 
one to another is through her borders. 

The importance of the lines of rail- 
way which meet in Indianapolis is a 
topic worthy of more than incidental 
mention. Upon the extent and connec- 
tions of those roads depend the reliance 
which may be accorded to the assertions 



which have just been made concerning 
the superioritj' of Indianapolis as a cen- 
ter of distribution and a point easy of 
access from every quarter of the Repub- 
lic. Look for a moment, therefore, at 
the list of railroads which enter this 
cit)'. The Pennsylvania system, the 
greatest combination of railways in the 
world, has in Indianapolis its Western 
center of radiation. From here lines 
belonging to the system radiate in four 
directions. One branch extends to Chi- 
cago, another to Louisville, another to 
Vincennes, and the fourth, which is the 
main stem, eastward to the great cities 
of the Atlantic coast. These divisions 
intersect and connect with other great 
systems, such as the Louisville & Nash- 
ville, the Chicago & Northwestern, the 
Chicago, Burlington & Onincy, the Chi- 
cago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, the Lake 
Shore & Michigan Southern, etc., so that 
it is difficult to discover any limits to 
the territory with which Indianapolis has 
prompt and constant communication. 

Then there is the Cleveland, Cincin- 
nati, Chicago & St. Louis system, com- 
monly called the Big Four. Of its thou- 
sands of miles of road this city is the 
center, seven of its divisions converging 
here. The seven reach to Cincinnati, 
Columbus, Cleveland, Grand Rapids, Chi- 
cago, Peoria and St. Louis. The Lake 
Erie & W-estern system, while not so 
extensive as the Pennsylvania or the Big 
Four, yet reaches to Toledo, Detroit, Ft. 
W^ayne, Chicago and Peoria, and pierces 
the richest portions of the great Indiana 
and Ohio gas and oil fields. The Cin- 



/ ' ^ V 




INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



45 



cinnati, Hamilton & Indianapolis is an 
important division of the Cincinnati, 
Hamilton & Daj'ton system, and is a 
competitor for business to Cincinnati, 
Toledo and Detroit. The Louisville, 
New Albany & Chicago system connects 
Indianapolis with the cities named in its 
title. The Vandalia is the chief trunk 
line between this city and St. Louis and 
the West, and is in such close combina- 
tion with the Pennsylvania system that 
to all purposes it is a part of it. 
The Indianapolis, Decatur & Western 



road, while not an integral part of 
any great system of railways, is an im- 
portant line, connecting the capital of 
Indiana with the finest agricultural lands 
in Illinois. A new line, which will con- 
nect the city directly with the rich min- 
eral and timber land of Kentucky, Ten- 
nessee, Alabama and other Southern 
States, is projected and in the hands of 
men who fully appreciate its impor- 
tance. 

In another way the railroads have 
done much for Indianapolis. This is by 




St. John's C.\thkdr.\l (Catholic). 



THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL. 



ESTADLISHED 1823. 



INDIANAI'OUS, SATURDAY MOKNINO. OCTOUEIl 22, 1892. 



3 CENTSI!:.".; 



THE 

GREAT FIRE SALE 



DAMAr::^ 



Is like an i 
and grows 
relentless 
ihe sale r 
Suits, Me 
Hals, iha 
(some no 
former V 
It IS : 

only at 




MURP 

Wholesale ' 



lopliyr blows trom .«. . '~~~~^— ^ 
crjb npple. The perfumer <jt <.^. 
Drue-H'mso. in preseiilinc lo the tra^e Ibw tnpit 
eslra';t of CRAB-APPLB BLOSSOMS, fur 
nishfs an articU which is a dehebtful addibon to 
a lady's toilet. 

Ask your dnieeist for the Old Gibreltar'a 
"Crab Apple Blossoms." and make a prMcnl to 
some lady It will bs appreciatied 


CINCINNATI 

cTh. & D. 
5 

TILUNS 

DAn,Y 

Only Uiw K 

TOLEDO u>d DETROI. 


The Soullicrn limpire. 

*Oi'T>it.iu> i.uriKK.k>ia.U>( u>^r.g.H. 


LUCP 5 CRUSHED COKE 

FOR SA.I.E 

INDIANAPOLIS GAS Ca 




TICKETP TO BE BAD At 

49 Sontlr PennsvjTaoia Street 


Houehton, W.ii:: \ U Kosloa 


STOCIiHOLDt;i£S- MEETl.va 




Clothine Cloaks anil Dress Goods 

OS EAST rnYMESTS 

The FULLER CLOA K Co 

B> t<)> W,.l.iB»[nn Sl»«l 


_BOOK EAROAINa 


( OUL'Mni.^ 1 I.UCR, 

68' FOB Va'gONw'hEA T 


Prlnceaa F*lour. 



luBitiMaiiBUoi I ibu* 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



47 



the establishing here of shops, and the Belt road was undertaken as much for 

employment of an army of men in them the purpose of giving employment to 

and the yards and train service. The idle workmen as for business investment, 

Peinisylvania, Big Four, Indianapolis, although the men in control of the enter- 

Decatur & Western, and Union Railway prise saw in it future profit. But even 



companies have ex- 
tensive shops here, 
which give employ- 
ment to many hun- 
dreds of men and 
cause a distribution 
of over $60,000 a 
month in wages. The 
salaries and wages 
paid to officers and 
clerks and train and 
yard men who have 
headquarters here 
amount to fully as 
much more. The 
money paid out for 
supplies is several 
hundred thousand 
dollars annually. 
Taken altogether, the 
railwaj' establishment 
of Indianapolis, for 
its own maintenance, 
pays out in the city 
yearly no less than 
two million dollars 
in cash. 

The Belt and 
Union railways can 




the most sanguine 
friends of the Belt 
road had no idea of 
the sudden bound in- 
to prosperity which 
it was to make. At 
once, almost, it be- 
came a great factor 
in the city's business 
life. As it is to-day, 
the Belt is a double- 
track railroad thir- 
teen miles long, in- 
tersecting every rail- 
road, and giving to 
each easy access to 
the large manufac- 
tories which have 
grown up along its 
route. The Belt is 
indeed a boon to 
manufacturers. They 
are by it enabled to 
occupy the cheaper 
ground away from the 
center of the city, and 
to have the benefit 
of a situation not only 
|'^jj)S55i-upon a railroad, but 
practically upon all 



WiiniBlitfh 

not be left out of ^^*->-^-— — iimLLj/mj/y,j, a ^__ 

consideration in any impartial statement the railroads centering here. A system of 
of the city's railroad interests. During switching and trackage charges has been 
the panic following the " flush " times adopted which brings a car from any 
of the early .seventies the building of the road to any manufacturer's door at a 



48 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



nominal cost. Every j'ear sees new man- 
ufactories located upon the Belt, and by 
the close of the decade the road will 
present the appearance of a Titan's 
rosary strung with nianul'aoturing iusti- 



freight trains crept like huge snails 
across busy thoroughfares. The lessen- 
ing of the degree of danger to human life 
by the keeping of the trains outside the 
city is also an important consideration. 




LiNSKKu (.)ii. Works 
tutions. In a word, the impetus which 
the building of the Belt road gave to 
manufacturing in Indianapolis has ex- 
erted a force beyond calculation. 

Another, less important, but note- 
worthy- benefit derived from the con- 
struction of the Belt road was the reliev- 
ing of the tracks inside the city of the 
obstruction which was certain to be verj- 
serious were all the freight moved over 
them. Now, only freight collected from 
the depots or destined for points within 
the city is allowed inside the circle of 
the Belt. All through freights are moved 
around the city upon the Belt, and from 
it switched upon the roads to which they 
are consigned. This leaves the down 
town streets which are crossed by rail- 
roads open for the use of the people 
most of the time, a condition best appre- 
ciated by those who have experienced 
the vexation of waiting while Ions: 



ON THK Bki.t Railroad. 

The arrangement bj- which all pas- 
senger trains on all the sixteen roads 
entering Indianapolis are brought into 
one magnificent union station in the very 
heart of the city must not be overlooked 
in this record of advantages. The Union 
Railway Company is a corporation of 
which the stock is owned by the railroad 
companies occupying the llnion Station 
and tracks. Thus the station is entirely 
in the control of the companies using it, 
and each occupant paj'S for the privilege 
according to the number of cars it runs 
over the Union tracks. There is no finer 
nor more convenient and beautiful rail- 
way station in America than the Union 
StatiDU in Indianapolis. An average of 
alxnit one hundred and twenty passenger 
trains enter and lerfve the station every 
day, and it has been estimated that 
twenty-five thousand passengers pass 
throuu:h the station daih-. The llnion 



50 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



tracks are spauued at the crossing of 
Virginia avenue by an imposing, massive 
viaduct, of solid masonry and enormous 
steel girders, and at the Illinois street 
crossing a tunnel for vehicles and pedestri- 
ans passes under the tracks. These are but 
the beginning of an extensive system of 
viaducts which in time will entirely remove 
from the public the danger and incon- 
venience of trains moving inside the city. 
Indianapolis has been well called the 



"Railroad City." She has done much 
for the railroads, and they have done 
much for her. At her bidding they carry 
the products of her industries to distant 
markets and bring in return the varied 
stores which administer to her wants 
and pleasures and augment her wealth. 
Through them her proud position of 
"gate-way" between the East and West 
becomes a living force exerted in her 
upbuilding and prosperity. 




Looking E.\st To\v.\rd the Union St.\tion. 



GENERAL REMARKS ABOUT RESOURCES. 




CITY can not feed upon it- 
self and prosper. While its 
"__\^ varied interests are in large 



degree interdependent, and 
no one of them can suffer seriously 
without direct or indirect injury to the 
others, the general condition of the entire 
community is ultimately dependent upon 
resources not arising from the inside 
workings of society, but originating out- 
side of and distinct from them. Trace 
any element of material wealth back to 
its primal source, and you find it spring- 
ing from the earth. But the earth does 
not yield its riches equally from every 
portion of its surface. It has its deserts, 
its regions of ice, its areas rich perhaps 
in some one product, but devoid of 
others. Again, a territory may exist in 
which the elements of wealth are crowded 
together in profusion. In the general 
di.stribution of the human race over the 
earth's surface all peoples can not share 
alike in what Nature has to give. The 
Eskimo in his hut of snow knows noth- 
ing of the luxuriance and ease which the 
native of the tropic enjoys ; nor do the 
inhabitants of either extreme of climate 
know of the thrift and vigor of mind and 
body which has made the races peopling 
the temperate zones the most powerful 
and enlightened of human kind. In a 
smaller way, every community is in chief 
part dependent upon its circumadjacent 
natural resources for its material condi- 



tion ; and the degree of its prosperity 
or poverty is in accordance with the 
plenitude of Nature's surrounding pro- 
vision of wealth-producing materials. A 
city whose wealth springs from some 
single possession may grow great and 
strong, but there is always ahead of it 
the possibility that its source of strength 
may fail and its pro.sperity vanish. Cities, 
populous and rich, have arisen in regions 
where mines have poured out precious 
minerals, or where oil wells have brought 
localities into sudden prominence. The 
mines have failed, the wells have emptied 
the reservoirs from which they fed, and 
the cities have sunk down in ruins and 
have been almost forgotten. It is the 
communities which draw from many and 
varied sources of wealth that have the 
certainty of growth and power through 
all time to come. The draught upon any 
single factor of prosperity is tlien not so 
relentless, and the failure of any one 
source of supply, should it occur, can 
not prove disastrous to the general 
weal. 

Upon the broad foundation of a mul- 
tiplicity of natural resources, coupled with 
the industrial and commercial aggressive- 
ness of a people trained in self-reliance 
and economy, Indianapolis has grown to 
greatness, and has established her faith 
in the future. Certainly few cities have 
grown up among more advantageous nat- 
ural surroundings. Set in the midst of 



52 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



a territory embraciiia; many thousands 
of square miles of tlie finest agricultural 
land on the globe, it would not have 
been surprising had a flourishing city 
arisen with no other elements of support 
than those coming from the cultivation 
of the soil. But there were other agents 
of wealth all about, any one of which 
might have ser\'ed as a foundation for a 
prosperous commercial and manufactur- 
ing center. In everj- direction Indian- 
apolis may reach out and almost at her 
doors gather up the riches which have 
been lavished about her. Forests of hard 
wood ; limitless beds of coal ; hundreds 
of square miles of stone, unexcelled for 
architectural uses ; inexhaustible supplies 
of stone, easily converted into the finest 
quality of lime or hydraulic cement ; 
great beds of kaolin, as yet almost unde- 
veloped, but destined to create wealth 
and extensive industries in a few years ; 
clay in all directions, suitable for the 
manufacture of every kind of brick, from 
the fine-grained and delicately moulded 



terra cotta to fire-brick and paving-brick, 
hard and enduring as granite ; white 
sand in vast deposits, almost pure silica, 
and unsurpassed for the manufacture of 
glass ; natural gas, the most perfect fuel 
ever known ; and oil fields extensive and 
rich ; these resources, with the exception 
of timber and the common brick clay, lie 
comparatively undeveloped by man. The 
next decade will witness a growth in the 
industries connected with the stone and 
clay and sand deposits of Indiana that 
would have seemed incredible to the In- 
dianian of ten j-ears ago. Of the devel- 
opment and prosperity which have already 
come, Indianapolis has been the center, 
and in that infinitely greater expansion 
and wealth which are to come in the future 
she will continue the sharer and chief 
cit)-. Every factor which builds up the 
State adds to the welfare of its principal 
city and commercial and industrial center. 
Just as in the past all roads were said to 
lead to Rome, so now it ma}- be said that 
all roads in Indiana lead to Indianapolis. 




■illiZl 



** -A-.tr ' 



K C.Yo^rr. 



Near the Old Covered Bridge. 



AGRICULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL. 




i-i 



*^;^NDIANAPOLIS is doubly for- 
tunate in the provision which 

•'!^r Nature has made for her. 

~ ' She not only has a rich soil 
suitable for profitable agri- 
culture overlying the greater 
part of her area, but beneath 
the soil has nameless stores of coal, 
stone, gas, oil, kaolin, etc. Of the native 
wealth beneath the surface something 
is said elsewhere ; of the agricultural 
opportunities and products of the State 
it is purposed to speak here. To saj^ 
all that might be said on this subject 
would alone require much more space 
than can be given to it at this time. 
Only the merest outline of the facts can 
here receive mention. 

The early settlers in Indiana regarded 
the State as destined to be purely agri- 
cultural. They knew nothing of the 
mineral wealth beneath their farms, and 
did not even care enough about it to 
make investigation. In very truth, the 
stoue and coal and fire-clays which now 
are of untold value could not have then 
been much utilized, even had the extent 
of their deposits been known. To make 
such things valuable there must be rail- 
roads and cities, populous communities 
and capital ready for investment. But 
every pioneer recognized in the level 
surface of the State, with its deep, black 
soil covering forest and prairie, and its 
numerous streams furnishing a never- 
failing water supply, a future agricultural 



empire. So it was that the spar.se popu- 
lation of fift}- years ago tilled the soil. 
The farmers of those early days were in 
no sense specialists. The men who gave 
their entire attention to raising cattle, 
or horses, or hogs had not yet come 
west. The pioneer did a little at all 
branches of agriculture. A few acres 
of wheat, somewhat more of corn, a 
potato patch, a cow or two, a team of 
scrawny horses of different sizes and 
modes of locomotion, and half-a-dozen 
thin, sharp-backed hogs, running wild 
through the fall and put into a pen and 
fattened a few weeks before being killed 
for the year's meat supply ; that was 
about the j'car's result of the farming 
operations of the average contented, hard- 
working farmer of half a century or 
more ago in Indiana. Yet it was not a 
life to look back upon with pity. There 
were frequent social amusements in every 
community : the log-rolling, the house- 
raising, the quilting, the corn-husking, 
the apple-cutting, the camp-meeting, the 
singing-school and the spelling-bee. The 
people were hospitable, generous, honest, 
industrious; ate plain, substantial food, 
wore plain, healthful clothing, and, alto- 
gether, lived wholesome, useful lives. 
There were no means of transporting 
crops of grain or droves of live stock to 
distant markets. Accordingly, people 
produced only what was likely to be 
needed by themselves or their neighbors. 
A system of exchange and barter in 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



55 



man)^ communities almost took the place 
of money, which was very scarce. The 
wheat and corn were ground at neigh- 
borhood mills, primitive aifairs, driven by 
water or horse-power. Frequently a man 
who went to mill would be required to 
hitch his own horse to the horse-power 
and drive him round and round while 
the miller attended to the grinding of 
the grain. An old anecdote, doubtless 



was exhausted. Then he went over and 
looked at the tiny stream of meal, about 
as large as a knitting-needle, running 
down into the half-bushel measure. 

" I could eat the meal as fast as vour 
old mill grinds it," the boy finally re- 
marked, in a tone of profound disgust. 

" Oh, yes ; I suppose you could, for 
awhile," the miller answered, confident in 
his superior wisdom. " You might for 




Apartment Hooses, North Illinois Strkht. 



familiar to thousands, illustrates well the 
slow, unsatisfactory progress which the 
rude mills of those days made in dis- 
posing of their grists : 

A boy went to mill with a sack of 
corn slung across his horse's back. The 
miller emptied the corn into the hopper, 
started his lazy old horse to moving and 
the rumble of the mill-stones began. 
The boy stood around until his patience 



awhile; but how long could you keep 
it up?" 

"How long?" retorted the lad, in fine 
contempt. "Why, till I starved to 
death." 

The great advancement of Indiana 
as an agricultural vState began at about 
the same time that railroads first ap- 
peared in the State. Railroads connected 
the farms of the West with the markets 




C.KAND HuTi;i.. 




GiRi.s' Classical School. 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



57 



of the East, and what was of scarcely less 
importance, connected the manufactories 
of improved farming implements in the 
East with the market for their products 
in the West. Thus the railroads brought 
a double benefit to the young State, and 
she began to flourish exceedingly. Her 
farms began to be better kept and larger, 
and to wear an air of new thrift and 
prosperity. Farm houses of a better 
character appeared, with barns and out- 
buildings as well. The plows wath 
wooden mold-boards gradually disap- 
peared, those of steel and cast iron tak- 
ing their places. More attention was 
paid to the breed of horses, cattle and 
swine, because, after the Eastern markets 
were brought into reach, it was found 
that stock of good breed and appearance 
commanded better prices and was always 
in demand. The same principle was 
found to apply to grain. Thus corn and 
wheat fields not onl)' grew larger and 
more numerous, but the quality of the 
grain improved and the yield per acre 
increased. In the last twenty-five j-ears 
Indiana has come forward to somewhere 
near the rank she is destined to hold 
among the States of the Union as a pro- 
ducer of grain. This is not true as 
regards live stock, as in that Indiana is 
now going ahead more rapidly than ever 
before, and it is almost certain that she 
will eventualh' equal or lead all other 
States in the raising of horses, and per- 
haps of fine-blooded cattle and hogs. In 
the production of wheat Indiana has led 
all other States, never falling below sec- 
ond or third place in the line. She 



nearly or quite equals in her wheat crops 
the great Northwestern States, whose 
chief and almost only product is wheat. 
And yet wheat is not Indiana's chief 
product. Corn is the chief. Over a 
hundred million bushels of corn are 
raised in this State every year. Indiana, 
in truth, with her corn crops, is among 
the leaders of the great corn-growing 
States, and with her wheat crops is at 
the head of the wheat-raising States. 

From the first early settlements in 
Indiana corn has been the staple of pro- 
duction. The rich river bottom lands, of 
which the State has a large area in the 
aggregate, are peculiarly suited to the 
raising of corn. Their soil is a deep 
black loam of almost inexhaustible fer- 
tility, and over a large per cent, of it 
the streams rise in times of high water 
and deposit new stores of richness suffi- 
cient to recompense for the loss by cul- 
tivation. The uplands, too, yield heavy 
crops of corn year after year, some farms 
being as generous in their returns as 
ever after half a century of cultivation. 
It is in the river and creek bottoms, 
however, that the greatest crops of corn 
are raised. It is nothing unusual — in 
fact, it is common — for corn grown in 
the bottoms to yield a hundred bushels 
to the acre, and instances may be gleaned 
in almost any lowland community of corn 
crops ranging as high as one hundred 
and twenty-five bushels to the acre. Of 
the huge corn crop harvested every year 
in Indiana a comparatively small propor- 
tion is shipped outside the State. The 
greater part is not even removed from 




Factory on tiik 



the farms where it grows. Experience 
has shown the farmer that his corn con- 
verted into meat is greatly increased in 
value. Accordingly, instead of selling it, 
he feeds it, and then sells his fat hogs 
and cattle. By good management he 
builds up his profits in this way, and at 
the same time is following the most con- 
venient and logical course open to him, 
and the one which results in the least 
deterioration of the productiveness of his 
land. It is estimated that the average 
corn crop of Indiana is worth no less 
than $40,000,000, or about twenty dollars 
apiece for every man, woman and child 
in the State. 

Fifty years ago the wheat production 
in the West was so small as to be com- 
mercially unimportant. Methods of sow- 
ing, reaping and threshing were crude 
and inefficient, and markets were inac- 
cessible. The demand was light, and 
prices not such as to encourage the 



Bp;i,t Railroad. 

cultivation of more wheat than was 
necessary for home consumption. It is 
not without interest to note here that, 
contrary to ordinary principles of trade, 
the production of wheat and its price 
have increased at the same time. When 
the wheat crop of Indiana amounted 
annuallj' to but a few thousand bushels, 
its price at best was from twenty-five to 
fift)- cents a bushel. When, years later, 
the annual wheat crop of the State had 
grown into millions of bushels, Uie price 
mounted to a dollar a bushel, or more. 
Excepting the war period, when unnat- 
ural conditions inflated prices, it may be 
said, in a general way, that the prices 
of wheat have ranged greatest when the 
crops have been largest, until the year 
1 89 1. In that year the wheat crop of the 
State reached the enormous and unprece- 
dented volume of 60,000,000 bushels, and 
the price ruled higher than for years, prob- 
ably higher than ever before, except during 



fOOBTH EDITIM. 



The Sun. 



SimTfOH IS FAEE. 



NUMBER l.3Ti 



rNDlANAPULlhi INU. SATrjUPAY. UCTl.lBLR 22. mttU. 



PRICE ONE CBNT-ft-.-u"!.".* 



BUSTIMB THE DESit 



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bridp, nMIt ninJHB^ tMe la lb 
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ikn«D rna kli bMuIi rnni n 

U* fru dntfkd * iqain Oeton k* 
CMild k« (topprd. 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



6i 



the years iufluenced by the Civil War. was above the average, while twenty 
With the growing demand for wheat bushels to the acre were almost unheard 
throughout the world, the means of pro- of Now, yields of forty or even iifty 




In I'AiRv 
ducing it have marvelously improved. 
The old laborious methods of preparing 
the ground, of sowing broadcast by hand, 
of reaping with a small hook, or even 
with a cradle, and of threshing with a 
flail, or by the treading of horses, have 
passed away and e.xist only in memory. 
Now the work is done from first to la.st 
by ingenious machinery, guided by skill 
and intelligence rather than by brawn. 
The result has been a decline in the 
cost of production and at the same time 
an immense increase in the yield. Kven 
as late as twenty-five j-ears ago, a yield 
of fifteen bushels of wheat to the acre 
was considered very good indeed, and 



IKW r.\RK. 

bushels per acre are recorded almost 
every j'ear, while the average crop for 
the entire State of Indiana in 1891 was 
probably not far below twenty bushels 
per acre. In 1891, the Indiana wheat 
crop was worth, at the prevailing prices, 
full $50,000,000. The wheat crop then 
was worth enough to have gone into tlie 
markets and returned twenty-five dollars 
for every human being in the State. 
Besides the two great staples of corn 
and wheat, Indiana annually produces 
millions of bushels of oats, barley, 
rye and potatoes. Hay, too, is pro- 
duced by millions of tons, but is chiefly 
consumed inside State lines, going to 




H 

o 



a 
S 




■s. 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



63 



fatten the domestic animals, which, in 
turn, are a source of enormous wealth. 
In the raising of fruit, Indiana recog- 
nizes no superior. Her orchards pro- 
duce more apples than do those of New 
York, and more peaches than those of 
Delaware. It is only within recent years 
that the adaptability of the soil and 
climate of this State to the raising of 
fine fruit has been recognized, and this 
branch of industry is in its infancy, com- 



of its agricultural land, are now known 
to be suited to peach culture and the 
growing of small fruits as, perhaps, no 
other region of the United States is. It 
is believed that in time the southern 
counties of Indiana will be commonly 
conceded to be the greatest peach-grow- 
ing area on the globe. 

Apples do well all over the State, but 
are surest and most prolific in the south- 
ern half. Within a decade has grown 




Residence, North 

pared to what the future is destined to 
show. The industry of peach culture is 
hardly ten years old, and its growth has 
been probably fifty per cent, each year. 
The broken hills and valleys of the 
-southern part of the State, which for- 
merly were regarded as the least valuable 



Dei,aw.\re Street. 

up a large shipping trade in apples in 
the southern counties. In almost every 
small town, commission men establish 
agencies during the fall and daily buy 
and ship car loads of apples, which are 
hauled into the stations by the surround- 
ing farmers. For years before this 



64 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA. U. S. A. 



shipping business began, thousands of 
bushels of apples rotted on the ground 
in the orchards simply because there was 
no market for them. Apples were almost 
worthless during the season of their 
abundance, and in any community train 
loads of them might have been purchased 
for ten cents a bushel. Now, however, 
all this is changed; the apple crop to 
many a farmer is almost or quite as 
important as his wheat or corn crop; he 
harvests it with as much care, and his 



Eastern markets with the fruit from the 
older and more famous orchards of the 
States long known for their fruit-growing 
productiveness. 

Pass from the direct to the indirect 
agricultural products of Indiana and the 
results of inquiry are scarcely less grat- 
ifying ; bj' the indirect products, live 
stock being meant, in distinction from 
such direct agricultural products as 
grain and fruit. The day of "scrub" 
stock has practically gone by; no repu- 




■■% 



t 







.■-^■„. ^■-y.^-:-s,>8gid 



I':xTUAN'CK TO Crow 
per cent, of profit is often very much 
greater. A generation ago people .set 
out orchards for the comfort and con- 
venience of having plenty of fruit for 
home use; to-day thej' set them out with 
the same purpose and certainty of profit 
that attends the cultivation of any other 
of their crops. Indiana apples and 
peaches now compete successfully in the 



N UlI.I, Cemhthrv. 

table breeder or dealer in live .stock will 
tolerate any but well-bred and improved 
horses, cattle or hogs about him to-day. 
There are two methods of measuring 
the advance which has been made in the 
live stock indu.stry: one is by comparing 
the number of specialists now devoting 
themselves exclusively to the breeding 
of fine grade animals with the number 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



65 



similarly engaged at an}- given time in 
the past; the other by comparing the 
general average excellence of live stock 
all over the State at present with what 
it was at any previous time. The latter 
test is by far the more valuable, as indi- 
cating the common advancement of the 
farming population, although the two are 
largely interdependent. Where special- 
ists are numerous, the general average 
quality of stock is reasonably certain in 
time to be improved; and, on the other 
hand, if popular sentiment grows to 
favor better grades of domestic animals. 



the State are men who are extensively 
engaged in raising fine horses, or cattle, 
or hogs. A growing public sentiment, in 
the first place, led to this business being 
taken up, and the business once estab- 
lished, stimulated and yet further edu- 
cated the sentiment. Thus by action 
and reaction has come about a marked 
improvement in the grade of domestic 
animals in Indiana within a dozen years. 
The classes of horses have grown 
apart, and now a horse is bred especially 
for heavy work or for light driving or 
for speed, and the people have come to 




Residence on North Meridi.^n Street. 
specialists in breeding are pretty sure to appreciate the fact that they profit by 
spring up to supply the demand. But having horses suited for the purposes to 
mea.sure Indiana by either method and whicli they are put. Every farmer has 
the result will be creditable. All over become to some extent a breeder of 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



67 



horses, and the stimulus which urges 
him constantly on to further improve- 
ment is the very substantial and appre- 
ciable fact that the better his horses are 
the higher are the prices which they 
will command in market. An inferior 
animal costs about as much to raise as 
one of a fine strain of blood, full of 
spirit, and of handsome form, but the 
latter will command a vastlj' higher 
price. With this knowledge ever in the 
mind of the Indiana farmer, it is uot to 
be wondered at that the grade of horses 
produced improves with every year. The 
same is even more true of cattle and 
hogs, because the average farmer deals 
much more extensively in cattle and hogs 
than in horses. 



training of race horses. About many cities 
in the State cluster racing interests of no 
meau order, and Indianapolis is clearly 
destined to become one of the great cen- 
ters for the breeding and racing of fine 
horses. In the last year an advance in 
this direction has been made which is 
of the utmost importance. Horsemen are 
bringing their stables here, and before 
the close of the year it is likely no fewer 
than two hundred and fifty horses of 
fine blood, bred for speed, will be located 
in the barns at the State Fair ground, 
and be in training upon the track there. 
The industry of raising live stock, and 
the great industries based upon that, 
to-day represent investments in Indiana 
of hundreds of millions of dollars ; invest- 







Bltf^fi!^.,' 




A View ok thk Insane Hospital. 

One of the direct results of the inter- ments on which the annual returns are 

est which has grown up in the breeding tens of millions, and which, in one way 

of blooded horses is the attention which and another, give support and employ- 

of late has been given to the raising and ment to thousands of persons. 




North I'kxxsvi.vania Strekt, aisovk Skvknth. 




Nkw Centrai, Christian Church. 



NATURAL GAS. 




^^EW economical problems 
are so important as those 
connected with the fuel 
supply. Fuel, like food 
and drink, is essential, not 
only to comfort and health, 
but to the very existence of 
human life. For Indianapolis these prob- 
lems have been reduced to their simplest 
form by the beneficent provision of 
Nature itself. No fuel which the world 
has ever known has pressed so closely 
upon the very verge of perfection as has 
natural gas, and in its possession of this 
treasure the chief city of Indiana is 
blessed as few other large cities on the 
globe have been blessed. From its vast 
subterranean storehouse the fluid rushes, 
eager to do the service that man desires. 
It requires no assistance, no forcing; 
simpl}' must be loosed from its prison- 
house and guided to the place where it 
is needed. The onl)' artificial aid neces- 
sary to the use of gas is in the way of 
restraining and directing it. When this 
first expense is disposed of the only 
work that remains to be done is to reg- 
ulate the flow of gas from the wells and 
keep in repair the pipes which con- 
duct it. 

The quality of cheapness is only one 
of the many excellencies of natural gas. 
It requires no storehouse, no constant 
forethought in providing a new supply 
to take the place of that in use. No 



hauling or lifting or carrj-ing or piling 
away in the cellar. It produces no ashes, 
no black smoke, if properly used, no 
refuse matter of any kind to be unsightly 
and cause dirt and trouble in the hand- 
ling. It gives a stead}', intense heat, 
requiring no attention night or day the 
winter through, except to turn it up or 
down to suit the weather, as simply and 
easily as an ordinary illuminating gas 
jet is regulated. There is no trouble- 
some building of fires, no popping of live 
coals out into the room to be a source 
of danger and apprehension. The gas 
is simph' lighted with a match or 
bit of paper, and then burns without 
further attention, and without danger. 
All this applies with full force to the 
consumption of gas in furnaces and under 
boilers. Experience has shown that had 
gas no advantage over coal in the matter 
of cost Eind convenience it would yet be 
far preferable to coal, because of its 
clean, steady, intense and easilj- manipu- 
lated heat. When all the other advan- 
tages enumerated are added to this there 
hardly remains ground of comparison 
between gas and coal. 

The first natural gas well in the 
United States from which flowed suffi- 
cient gas to be utilized as fuel was in 
the town of Fredonia, in Western New 
York, in 1821. The gas was first dis- 
covered issuing from a spring, and was 
collected and used in several adjacent 




K 
oi 
J- 
'Jl 

C 
7. 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



71 



houses with reasonably satisfactory re- 
suhs. Soon after a small well was sunk, 
and from it a small flow of gas was 
obtained. That was the beginning, but 
it was so small that it was not regarded 
as important, and such use as had been 
made of the gas was allowed to fall into 
neglect. Years after its use was re- 
vived, and, as the wells were only two 
or three hundred feet deep, and one well 
supplied hardly more gas than one house- 
hold would consume, there came a time 



tory. The period which may be termed 
the natural gas era did not begin until 
a few years ago. The first gas well of 
the great modern wells was drilled in 
Pennsylvania, in the outskirts of the vil- 
lage of Murrysville, some twenty miles 
northeast of Pittsburg, and was an acci- 
dent and a surprise. It was a giant, and 
an unwelcome one, and disgusted the 
drillers exceedingly. They were pros- 
pecting for oil. It was in the fall of 
187S, and the oil fever in Pennsylvania 




The Convention Hai,i,. 
when almost every house of the better was at its height. Every farmer thought 



class in Fredonia had its own gas well 
in the back yard. 

All this is of importance only as 
showing how long ago natural gas first 
came into use, and .something of its his- 



he might have a vast fortune below, and 
was impatient to learn the truth. So it 
was that drillers for oil covered the hills 
and valleys in every direction with their 
unsightly derricks and punctured the 




SoLuiKRs' Monument. 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



73 



earth in thousands of places. When this most of the time, and lighting up the 
particular well at Murrysville reached landscape for a long distance. Its roar- 
what since has been known as gas rock ing could be heard distinctly for six 




Flats on Indiana Avenue 

there burst forth such a roar as terrified 
everybody in the village. The outrush- 
ing gas drove the drillers away, and, 
after vainh' trying to control it by vari- 
ous means, they gave it up, and con- 
cluded that the money sunk in that well 
was a total loss. Numerous schemes for 
harnessing the monster, which became 
famous as "Old Haymaker," were tried 
and failed. People were afraid of it, and 
it roared away, releasing many millions 
of feet of gas every day. For four or 
five years this went on, the well burning 



miles, and people traveled from afar to 
see it. The inhabitants of Murrysville 
were driven almost wild by the noise, 
which made conversation nearlj' impos- 
sible and ruined sleep. Scarcely did the 
village know what darkness was during 
all those years. 

Before this famous old well was con- 
quered and put to work supplying the 
city of Pittsburg with fuel, the value of 
natural gas had become well understood, 
and people in localities remote from the 
Murrysville field began to drill experi- 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



75 



mental wells, hoping to discover that 
they too had been provided for by 
Nature. It was not a great while before 
several other gas fields had been discov- 
ered in Pennsylvania, and about 1S84 or 
1885 drillers at Findlay, Ohio, were re- 
warded with success also. 

The first natural gas well in Indiana 
was drilled in 18S6, at the village of 
Eaton, Delaware county, twelve miles 
north of Muncie. Several years before, 
Mr. W. W. Worthington, manager of the 
Ft. Wayne, Muncie & Cincinnati railroad, 
had drilled a well about three hundred 
feet deep at Eaton. It was of no ac- 
count, and was abandoned. After gas 
had been discovered in Ohio, Mr. R. C. 
Bell and Mr. Worthington, both of Ft. 
Wayne, visited Findlay, Ohio, and saw 
the great well there. They came awa)- 
enthusiastic, and, after some discussion, 
decided to resume operations on the old 
Eaton well. They did it partly to get 
the benefit of the work already fairly 
started and partly because they fancied 
the rocks about Findlay and Eaton were 
similar. This fancy, while probably of 
no real significance, nevertheless led to 
the discovery of gas in Indiana in paying 
quantities. The drill reached Trenton 
rock, and the gas rushed out with a roar 
wliich set the good people of Eaton wild 
with excitement. The well seemed a 
monster then, but after others which 
really were large were drilled, the orig- 
inal well was found to be small. Its flow 
was about one million cubic feet a day. 
After this the development of Indi- 
ana's gas field was rapid, and soon be- 



came enormous. Every city, every town, 
every village, every farming community 
within a hundred miles of Eaton organ- 
ized companies and began to drill wells. 
Thousands of towering derricks marked 
the sites where drilling was in progress, 
and one might ride through the country 
for hours upon a railwaj- train with 
scarce a moment in which one or more 
of the gaunt, skeleton-like structures were 
not to be seen from the car windows. 
Hundreds of thousands of dollars were 
thrown away before the extent of the gas 
field was learned, and hundreds of wells 
were drilled that produced gas of which 
not a tithe could be consumed by legit- 
imate means, the remainder of the flow 
being allowed to run to waste. It was 
estimated that for two or three 3'ears 
after gas was discovered and developed 
one hundred million cubic feet of it was 
utterly wasted every day. 

When the experimental well drilling 
had definitely determined its bounds, the 
area of the Indiana gas field was found 
to be very much larger than that of any 
other known. In Pennsylvania are many 
small fields without apparent connection 
with each other, but which in the aggre- 
gate form a large area. In Ohio is but 
one field, with some five hundred or si.x 
hundred square miles of area. In Indiana 
is but one field, also, but its size, including 
all the territory in which a well will pro- 
duce any gas, is between five thousand and 
six thousand square miles. Of this great 
expanse probably three thousand square 
miles are underlaid bj' gas in quantity 
sufficient to produce wells of the first class. 



76 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



Upon this tremendous store of natural only be fully appreciated by a trip over 

gas Indianapolis draws for her fuel sup- the lines through the gas territory. Ex- 

plj'. A system of pipe lines and wells tending northward from the city are four 

of a magnitude undreamed ol by most trunk lines of gas mains. Almost par- 




Tun Denison. 

of those who use the gas, conducts it allel they run for nearly twenty miles, 

from tlie field to the stoves and grates then diverge and enter an indescribably 

and furnaces of the consumers. Proba- complicated network of lateral and minor 

bly fifty thousand natural gas fires burn mains. Over a territory twenty-five miles 

all winter long in the city. The quan- long and from three to ten miles w-ide 

tity of gas necessary to supply them is are scattered the wells which send gas 

not less than seventy-five million cubic humming along the lines to Indianapolis, 

feet a day during the six cold months. Two main trunk lines, which receive the 

While it is impossible to judge from gas from the small lines directly con- 

this computation the actual extent of the nected with the wells, extend through 

pipe line system, one may at least form this field its entire length. From the 

some idea of its magnitude, which can northern limits of the city to the most 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



77 



distant wells which contribute to her fuel 
supply is a distance of forty-five miles. 
Full two hundred gas wells unite in this 
great work of furnishing a city its heat. 
The wells are not very close together, 
and are in ravines and on hills ; in the 
woods and in the open fields ; near trav- 
eled roads or far from any highways, 
lyike some huge circulatory sj'Stem, the 
subterranean pipes connect all the sources 
of supply and, collecting the gas from 
all, pour it into the city. The pressure 
of the gas as it rushes from the wells 



the city is reached. At the cit}' limits 
the gas flows through regulating stations, 
which reduce its pressure much lower 
still. 

In this system of pipe lines, contain- 
ing many hundred miles of connected 
pipes, full three million dollars has 
been invested. But, while this is true, 
the cost of fuel in the city of Indian- 
apolis has fallen to less than half what 
it was before the discovery of gas. As 
shown elsewhere, the city lies within 
easy reach of exhaustless beds of coal. 




Residence, North Meridian Street. 

ranges from two hundred to three hun- and has never known what high-priced 

dred and twenty-five pounds to the square fuel is, and yet, compared with what she 

inch, but the friction of the pipes reduces now pays for gas, the old coal prices 

this to a pressure less than one hundred appear exorbitant. When for less than 

pounds to the square inch by the time thirty dollars a large house mav be thor- 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



79 



oughly heated for twelve months, and a 
poor man, with his one or two rooms or 
his cottage, may have an abundance of 
heat for from ten to twenty dollars a 
year, with fuel for cooking included, 
there certainly seems little remaining to 
desire in that direction. Then to this 
cheapness add the additional qualities of 
cleanliness, convenience, steadiness and 
reliability, and you have the most per- 



pardon is craved here for a momentary 
consideration of the spectacular phase of 
the natural gas presence. Few sights 
are grander than that of a burning gas 
well at night. The flame rushes from 
the mouth of the pipe with a deafening 
roar which, for many rods around, pre- 
vents a spectator from hearing his own 
voice, and leaps toward the sky, which 
hangs, black as ink, apparently close 




rniMC School No. 32. 

feet fuel ever known. Its cheapness above. As the flame rises it expands, 

would make it popular though it were until, in case the well i.s a very powerful 

as dirty and troublesome as coal, and its one, it is sometimes a hundred feet high 

cleanliness and convenience would popu- and forty or fift)' feet in diameter. Then 

larize it though it were as expensive as this vast mass, whipped and torn by the 

coal. air currents which swirl and eddy around 

While it is a diversion from the strict it, flares and veers, now seeming to 

line of the purpose to set forth the ad- squat in fright, now to leap upward 

vantages of Indianapolis as a favored with the fierceness of some huge beast 

commercial, industrial and social center, of prey, again to sweep with an angry 



So 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 




roar to one .side and 
.stoop almost to the 
earth. Now and then 
some great fragment of 
flame is torn from the 
main body, and, ila])- 
ping aud hissing like a 
banner from the infernal 
regions, rides wildly np- 
on the breeze an instant 
and vanishes. The eye 
tires and the strain np- 
on the ear becomes 
painful. The .spectator 
finds himself involun- 
tarily wondering if the 
roar aud flame will 
never cease. There is a feeling that the 
mighty performance is carried on with 
such a reckless disregard of material and 
under such a terrific tension that it can 
not long continue — that Nature herself 
must rest and recuperate .soon. But no ! 
On aud on it goes, like the falls of 
Niagara, aud finally, wearied aud almost 
stunned, the spectator who has witnessed 
the scene for the first time 
turns away. Half a mile and 
he looks back. Through the 
trees, perhaps, he sees the great 
torch bounding and stooping, 
as though vainly trying to free 




;.\\ A r Tin; Li 'I NTKV Li.i. i:. 

itself from the bond that holds it to the 
earth. Its wild motiou throws weird, 
shifting shadows over the country round ; 
its roar, muffled by the distance, comes 
across the fields sullen and changeful. A 
mile away : Over the trees a fitful, throb- 
bing light comes and goes, flares and 
fades. On the dark sky above, au angry, 
livid blur of red, brightening and failing 
and wavering in sympathy with the rag- 
ing prisoner below. Up through the 
dense night air, heavy with moisture, 
still comes the .sullen roar, faint and 
softened, like the humming of a hive of 
bees in the summer evening. 




-^'-■k' 



Furniture Factories Along the J. M. & I. R. R. 




,<^^i«i-" 



--. :i\^ 






INDIANA COAL-MEASURES. 




^HAT mineral product which 



in the past has contributed 
most to the wealth of Indiana 
is coal. And yet the coal 
e beds of the State are hardly 
disturbed, so great is their 
extent compared to the num- 
ber and magnitude of the mines. 
Hardly enough miuiug has been done, in 
truth, to determine the area of the coal- 
field or the number of workable beds 
which are to be found one below an- 
other. All the coal underlying Indiana 
is bituminous, but it varies from the firm, 
fine-grained cannel, capable of taking a 
high polish, to the hard, brittle block 
coal, which will not cake in burning. 

The area of the coal-measures of the 
State is estimated to be seven thousand 
square miles, and in many parts of the 
field twelve veins may be pierced by a 
perpendicular shaft a few hundred feet 
deep. These seams of coal are at depths 
ranging from the surface to three hun- 
dred feet below, their average depth be- 
ing about eighty feet. The fine seams, 
which are commonly worked, vary from 
two or three to eleven feet in thickness, 
and average about four feet, an average 
which proves the coal to be, as a rule, 
conveniently and cheaply mined. The 
abundance of coal in Indiana is a matter 
of surprised comment to persons visiting 
the fields. It is no unusual thing to 
notice a black horizontal stripe several 



feet wide marking the face of the bluff 
along some stream. Occasionally two, or 
even three, such stripes lie parallel to 
each other, with layers of clay" or shale 
between. These are the outcroppiugs of 
coal seams. Frequently, as the weather 
or high water causes the face of such a 
bluff" to crumble away, great fragments 
will break from the exposed edges of 
the coal, and, rolling to the foot, accu- 
mulate in heaps, ready mined for the 
neighboring farmers to haul home for 
fuel. In regions where the coal beds lie 
near the surface such outcroppiugs are 
exceedingly common along the banks of 
streams which have cut deep courses, and 
the farmers often have their private 
mines or drifts, where they burrow away 
at getting out their fuel supply in the 
intervals of farm work. While much 
coal is mined by drifts, which are tun- 
nels entering hill-sides at an incline, 
more and of a better quality lies deeper, 
and must be brought to the surface by 
hoisting up perpendicular shafts. There 
are whole townships, almost whole coun- 
ties, underlaid by these rich coal beds, 
and not yet developed by the investment 
of a dollar, beyond what the farmers have 
put into their small mines for furni.shing 
their home fuel. In the years to come 
all this will be changed. Millions of 
dollars will go into machinery and mines, 
and tens of millions will come out in 
profits. 




W 

a. 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



83 



The block coal district has been more calculated by Prof. Rogers, thus: "The 
extensivelx- de\-eloped than any other, dynamic value of one pound of good 
The superlative quality of its product steam coal is equivalent to the work of 



and the fact that it was pierced bv a 
railroad years before any other coal-field 
in the State was opened to the markets, 
account for its fame and the extent of 
its output. So far as has 
been shown, block coal un- 
derlies an area of about six 



one man for one day, and three tons are 
equal to twent>- years' hard work of 
three hundred days to the year. The 
usual estimate of a four-foot seam is that 

it will yield one ton of good coal 
^' ^_^ for every square yard, or about five 

thousand tons to the acre. Each 




Stk.\m Pump Works. 

hundred or seven hundred square miles, square mile will then contain three mill- 
in the western part of the State. It is ion two hundred thousand tons, which, 
remarkably free from sulphur, phosphor- in the total capacity for the production 
ous or other foreign substances. This of power, are equal to the labor of over 
quality, in connection with its richness one million able-bodied men for twenty 
in carbon, makes it especially valuable in years." This computation by Prof Rog- 
the manufacture of steel and for refining ers applies to a single four-foot seam of 
and rolling-mill uses. It has no superior coal underlying a single square mile, 
for the more common demands of do- Now, take up the calculation where Prof. 



mestic consumption. It burns freely, 
with a bright flame, and leaves a very 
slight residuum of white ash. 

The tremendous amount of force 
stored up in coal has been carefully 



Rogers left off and apply it to Indiana's 
seven thousand square miles of coal- 
fields, underlaid by four or five seams of 
coal, each four feet thick. The result 
gives a showing of stored up power 




Dksk Kactorv ox L. H. & \V, R. R 




.Mai.i,i-;.\hi,k Iron W'ukks at IlAicin ii.i.i-; 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



85 



utterly beyond the grasp of human com- 
prehension. It is estimated that at pres- 
ent, capital amounting to about three 
and a half million dollars is invested in 
coal mining in Indiana, and that the 
annual production of coal is fully two 
and a half million tons, worth over tlnee 
million dollars. The luimber of men 
employed in and about the mines is 



of this expansion, and the rate of in- 
crease during the last five years has been 
slower. Now, coming back directly to 
the purpose of this brief resume of the 
coal wealth of the State, it should be 
recalled that Indianapolis lies but fifty 
miles from this inexhaustible fuel supply, 
and that numerous railroads which trav- 
erse the coal territory can tran.sport 




Home of Ex-Govhrnor A. G. Porter. 

about seven thousand. For fifteen years unlimited quantities to the city on a few 

prior to the discovery of natural gas in hours' notice, and at prices which, 

Indiana the coal industry grew at the compared with the cost of coal in many 

rate of twenty-three per cent a year, cities of the country', less fortunate in 

The advent of gas checked the rapidity situation, seem almost ridiculously low. 



CONCERNING STONE, 




'EXT to the coal industry, 
in the extent of develop- 
; ment of natural resources, 
in the State, is the stone 
business. The quarrj^ing 
and manufacture of stone 
and stone products, such 
as lime and hydraulic cement, are car- 
ried on in many places and upon a 
comprehensive scale, and }et, when one 
considers the vastness of the stone 
deposits of the State, the industries 
based upon them seem puny and insig- 
nificant by comparison. The truth is, 
the stone industry of Indiana, though 
extensive considered alone, is in its in- 
fancy compared to what it is destined to 
be in a few years. This is not idle 
boasting. The man who investigates the 
stone fields of the State, and examines 
the quality as well as the extent of the 
deposits, will discover that it is no easy 
matter to overrate the value of Indiana's 
stone. This is true, not only of the 
limestone, which has already become 
famous all over the continent, but of the 
sandstone as well, whose excellence is 
only beginning to be understood. Three 
qualities are necessary to the best pos- 
sible building stone. They are dura- 
bility, workability and beauty. It is im- 
portant, also, that it should be cheap. 
All these qualities, it may be said in the 
beginning, the building stones of Indiana 
possess in eminent degree. 



A large area in the western part of 
the State, extending north and south for 
near two hundred miles, is rich in sand- 
stone perfectly adapted to building pur- 
poses. This stone is fine-grained and 
massive, homogeneous, non-cleaving and 
exceedingly strong in all directions. 
Maurice Thompson, the well known 
author and geologist, has made a careful 
study of the building stone deposits of 
Indiana, and is enthusiastic concerning 
their value and extent. Speaking of the 
sandstone, Mr. Thompson says : " It 
comes very .soft from the quarry, which 
makes it remarkably easy to cut ; after- 
ward it dries quickly, takes on a lively 
glow and holds its color perfecth'. In 
the western part of the State are inex- 
haustible beds of this beautiful stone. 
Blocks of the better class of this are so 
soft on coming from the quarrj- that 
they may be hewn into any shape with 
a common ax, and will harden in a few 
days to such a degree that, upon being 
.struck with a hammer, they will give 
forth a clear, metallic sound and emit 
sparks like flint. Although the quarry- 
ing of sandstone has not j-et come to be 
of that importance in Indiana which the 
value of the deposits demands, still it 
has been increasing yearly, and must 
soon take its place among our greatest 
industries. We .shall not always go to 
far northern and eastern regions to im- 
port a material which lies at our feet 




Y. :\I. C. A. Buii.iiiNf.. 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA. U. S. A. 



89 



ready for use. The best modern archi- 
tects have long made use of sandstone 
similar to ours in the most costly and 
extensive structures of European cities." 
The Indiana sandstones are just now 
beginning to be appreciated for what 



will multiply a hundredfold. It is con- 
fidently believed that in quality, in vari- 
ety and richness of color, and in ease 
and cheapness of production, these sand- 
stones need not fear the competition of 
the world. The colors which are com- 




they are worth. Quarries here and there mon and available for the quarryman 

are opening up and increasing their out- are brown, buff, gray, pink, straw color, 

put as the demand for the stone in- yellow, white, red and black. In fact, 

creases. Before long the demand will all these colors have been found in large 

seek the supply, and then the (juarries deposits within the limits of a single 




Ri;sii>i;xci'; "x Xcihth Dki.awark STuicirr. 




Kl-.SIDKNCK HX XOKTH Ml-.KIUIAX Sl'lOiHT. 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S, A. 



county. Ill chimneys and foundations, 
and here and there a farm house, the 
sandstones of Western Indiana have been 
in use half a century, and it is an inter- 
esting and significant fact that they are 
as firm and smooth and free from crum- 
bling or apparent weather wear as they 
were when they were laid in place fresh 
from the quarry. These tests have con- 
clusively proven the durabilit}- of the 
stone. Its strength and workability and 
beaut}' and abundance are susceptible of 
proof any day that one cares to go about 



91 

already learned to turn when the finest 
building material to be had is wanted. 
The quarrying of limestone in this vState 
is not an old industry, but the product 
of the quarries was of so plainly superior 
a character from the very first that it 
sprang with a bound into public favor. 
The small beginning of the stone busi- 
ness a few years ago has rapidly swelled 
to large proportions, and yet the im- 
mense deposits of fine stone seem hardly 
disturbed b>- the scattered assaults made 
upon them by the quarrymeu. For over 




M.\DISON A\'^NUE 

an investigation in the region where it 
lies. Capital from other States is already 
going into the new .sand.stone quarries, 
and no one who is familiar with the 
facts can doubt that in a few years they 
will become the basis of an immense 
industry. 

To Indiana's limestone it is, however, 
that the builders of the countrv have 



Furniture Factory. 

a hundred miles the beds of limestone 
suitable for building purposes extend— 
from Greencastle on the northwest to 
Salem on the .southeast, and averaging 
several miles wide. This stone has be- 
come famous as "the Indiana Oolitic." 
Ideally perfect limestone would be com- 
posed of pure carbonate of lime, but this 
perfection is never found. In .some 



INDIANAPOI.IS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



93 



Indiana oolitic limestones the proportion 
of foreign substances is onlj' three per 
cent., which is about as nearly pure as 
any stone known. " Next to marble in 
beauty and susceptibility to perfect finish 
as regards application to architecture, is 
the close-grained oolitic stone. Although 
coming comparatively soft from the 
quarrj', oolitic stone has a peculiar 



be bent \-er},- perceptibly, and when the 
force is removed it will spring back to 
its normal state with the promptness and 
energy of steel. Its tone, when struck, 
is a clear, musical, bell-like note. When 
first quarried it is almost as easily cut 
as sandstone, yielding readily to tools of 
all kinds. It is then soft, and yet tough 
enough to hold well the finest figures 




Engi^ish Lu 
toughness and density, and withal a dry- 
ness, which render it a puzzle to every 
examiner. It is flexible, elastic, re.sonant, 
uniform in its grain, equally .strong in 
every direction and perfectly homogene- 
ous. These qualities give it the best 
possible power of resistance to strains or 
crushing force. A bar of this stone may 



THER.\N Church. 

of carving. It comes from the quarry 
cut by steam channelers into blocks or 
quadrangular columns six by ten feet by 
one hundred feet long, if desired. Its 
color at first is a pale brownish shade, 
which gradually lightens on exposure to 
the air to a soft cream or grayish 
white." 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



95 



Within the last five years the prac- The purchaser had no sooner gained 

tical interests in the oolitic deposits have possession of the tract than he caused 

more than doubled. During that time the the earth to be removed from the stone 

stone trade has grown with a constantly in several patches, so that the quality 

increasing momentum, and day by day of the deposit might be ascertained. In 



the quarried stone is reach- 
ing new fields of demand. 
The prosperity of the 
stone interests has natural- 
ly stimulated activity in 
other lines of business. 
Prices of real estate have 
gone up to figures un- 
dreamed of a few years 
ago by the farmers who 
tilled the soil above the 
stone. Towns have grown 
rapidly, yet .substantially, 
for the growth has not 
been the result of ficti- 
tious "booming" of values. 
In many instan- 
ces the opening 
of new quarries 
has caused farm- 
land prices to 
fairl)' leap up- 
ward. An in- 




less than a }ear this man 
had ceded ten acres of the 
tract to a stone company 
on condition that he should 
receive six thousand dol- 
lars of paid up stock and 
that the compau)' should 
construct a railroad switch 
from the main line into 
the tract. Twelve acres he 
sold outright to another 
company for forty - two 
hundred dollars in cash, 
and the remaining six 
acres he still holds, intend- 
ing to retain it until the 
quarries started 
near it become 
extensive, when 
it can doubtless 
be sold for a 
thousand dollars 
an acre or more. 



stance is recalled of a man who pur- All this from an original investment 

chased twenty-eight acres of rough land, of not over three hundred and fifty 

overgrown with bushes and scrubby tim- dollars, and all within the last twelve 

ber, for three hundred and fifty dollars, months. While such marked profits as this 






4 ^CEI'-3:\» 







^ir v^ ■«-» *Ttti 







o 
'J 



o 
2 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



97 



recorded are of course exceptional, the}- 
differ in degree only from many other 
fortunate real estate transactions, and the 
force of all in this connection is to em- 
phasize the enormous strides which the 
stone industry in Indiana is making. 
And this marvelous advance is not des- 
tined to be temporary. It is based upon 
the firmest foundations. The use of 
stone can never cease. Substitutes may 
be found for coal, for iron, for brick, for 
wood, but as the United States becomes 
older and richer, and people find time 
to think more about durability and solid- 
ity and beauty, there will be a constantly 
increasing demand for building stone. 




Indian \ Tniki^i: i;rii.MNi'., 



One important advantage which Indiana 
stone has over the stones of many other 
places is that it lies almost on the sur- 
face of the ground. The five or ten feet 
of earth which covers the stone can be 
quickly and cheaply removed by horse- 
power plows and scrapers, and the stone, 
of which as large an area maj' be cleared 
off at the first as desired, lies so level 
and convenient to quarry and hoist upon 
the cars that the process is compara- 
tively inexpensive. 

As has before been said, the stone 
business in Indiana, though large, is in 
its infancy. As compared with the prob- 
abilities of the future, it is scarcely a be- 
ginning. And j'et within the 
last ten 5'ears it has made 
notable progress. The finest 
and costliest steam machinery 
is employed in all the largest 
quarries. Steam channelers 
cut the blocks of stone from 
their .solid bed, ranging from 
twenty to sixtj- feet thick, 
where they were deposited 
atom by atom countless ages 
ago. Steam hoists the stone 
from the excavation and loads 
it on the cars ; and in the 
shops connected with the quar- 
ries, steam saws the rough 
SI i kIm stones into slabs and blocks 
i^^H and prisms, or turns them into 
cylindrical columns or orna- 
mented cornices or balustrades, 
as may be desired. There are 
now about two hundred com- 
panies, or individuals, which 



98 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



own stone quarries in the State. This 
is an average of more than two to each 
county. The amount of capital invested 
in quarries in 1890 was $4,294,943. The 
number of men employed in the quar- 
ries in that year was 4,334, and the 
wages paid them $2,171,375.10. The ap- 
proximate total output of stone was 



goes into almost every vState east of the 
Rocky Mountains, and that costly and 
enduring monuments attest its superi- 
ority at the very gates of all the other 
most celebrated quarry fields. It is car- 
ried triumphantly beyond the marble 
regions of Tennessee and the granite of 
Georgia ; over the limestone ledges of 




^-m^i 



m^.. 



^3«iiiiiii!!!:!:[>!i 




Business Blocks on Virginia Avenue. 

20,649,276 cubic feet, worth $3,312,446.70. Alabama and into the central cities of 

Quoting once more from Mr. Thomp- Texas. Missouri calls for it ; Chicago 

son: "It would be interesting, if it were must have it, and does have it every 

possible," says he, " to give a statement day in the year ; Cincinnati, New Or- 

showing the scope of the commerce in leans, Philadelphia, New York, Atlanta 

stone from Indiana ; but we can only and hundreds of other cities and towns 

state that our best building stone now are using it freely in preference to any 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



99 



other stoue. Its use is its advertisement; 
for wherever it is seen in a building its 
superiority is not to be overlooked or dis- 
credited." Indiana has shown her high ap- 



a half million dollars, is of the oolitic 
stone ; so are the handsome new build- 
ings of the Indianapolis Public Library 
and Commercial Club. But the reputa- 




Governor's Room in the State House. 



preciation of her stone by the generous 
use which she has made of it. Her Capi- 
tol, costing two million dollars, and which 
is one of the most beautiful public build- 
ings in America, is constructed entirely 
of oolitic stone. Her Soldiers' Monu- 
ment, costing three hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars, and the grandest 
memorial on the. contiuent, is of her own 
ooitic stone. Court-houses all over the 
vState are of Indiana stone. The Marion 
County Court-house, which cost one and 



tion of the oolitic stone is even greater 
abroad than at home. State-houses, 
hotels, court-houses, residences, chambers 
of commerce, business blocks in hundreds 
of cities speak its fame. The time has 
come when those who contemplate the 
erection of a great building pause first 
to consider the merits of Indiana's stone, 
that they may secure something which 
will endure through ages, and which to 
succeeding generations will stand an 
honor to the memory of its builders. 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



But even yd the tale of the Hoosier and favoraljly known as the stone itself, 

stone fields is not all told. The great It is at present manufactured chiefly in 

lime and cement industries of the State the southeastern part of the State, but 

have not yet been touched upon. In as the industry grows it may extend 

their way these products of the stone over a much greater area. Lime may be 

are of the same high ([uality as the produced at almost any point in an area 




RliblUUNCK ON CKNTR.\I, AVENT'K. 

stone itself. Full\- two million bushels of probably a thousand square miles, 

of lime are manufactured in Indiana and the stone is so easily reducible that 

every j'ear, worth three and a half the process is cheap and rapid. In the 

million dollars; and probably twice as cement and lime industries many hnn- 

much hydraulic cement as lime. The dred thousand dollars are invested and 

hjdraulic cement is almost as widely an army of men given means of support. 



TIMBER SUPPLY, 




3\lRST of the State's natural 
resources to be recognized 
and put into use was its 
forests. Thousands of square 
miles were covered b}' a 
massive growth of oak, wal- 
nut, ash, beech, poplar, 
cherry, hickorj-, gum, sj^camore, maple 
and other valuable species. They con- 
.stituted a source of wealth quick to 
catch the eye, and simply and cheaply 
converted into cash. It must be ad- 
mitted that the State's earlier settlers 
failed entirely to appreciate the future 
value of the timber which encumbered 
the lands desired for cultivation, and 
that, in consequence, they destro^-ed giant 
growths, which, had thej' been spared 
twenty-five years, would have been worth 
several times over the value of the 
ground denuded of them. 

But vast areas of magnificent timber 
yet remained intact when enterprisnig 
men came to realize the wealth contained 
in them. Then the era of saw-mills 
began. In a thousand communities the | 
singing whirr of the circular saw was 
heard, and in all the towns and cities 
planing-milLs sprang into existence 
Lumber was shipped east in train loads 
— the manufacture of finished products, 
except in house building, not being intro- 
duced until a later day. Gradually the 
idea took form that the money made 
b)' Eastern manufacturers from Indiana 
woods might as well be made at home, 



and from that time all the processes of 
converting our timber into the fini.shed 
product have been accomplished within 
a few miles of where it grows. Wagons, 
carriages, furniture of infinite variety, 
and interior house finishings are now 
made at home, and the country' has not 
seen their suj^eriors in excellence or 
beauty. 

In the earl}' days, every section of 
the State contributed to the timber 
supply, though the central and southern 




INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



lO.^ 



portions yielded the richest variet}' of 
valuable woods. To-day, the areas over- 
grown with the most valuable species of 
trees for manufacturing purposes in- 
cludes substantially the southern one- 
third of the State. Although the supply 
is not what it was before Indiana 
became a great agricultural common- 
wealth, it is yet capable of supplying 
the heavy demands made upon it for 
many years to come. 

The growing value of Indiana hard 
woods for the higher classes of work, 
has, to a large extent, removed them 
from the field of common use. For 
instance, since oak has become one of 
the most [Kjpular woods for furniture 
and for the interior decoration of costly 
houses, it has grown too valuable to be 
u.sed for the building of barns and 




The Coi'NTKV Ci.ru Hoi .■,!•.. 



fences. At the same time, our railroads 
give direct communication with the 
great pine forests of the Carolinas in 
the South, and Michigan and Wisconsin 
in the North, affording an abundance 
of cheap timber. This, con,sidered in 
connection with the increasing value of 
hard woods at home, accounts for the 
fact that, while train loads of manufac- 
tured and unmanufactured products of 
Indiana forests are annually shipped 
awa>-, the land owners who profit by 
the sales import the cheaper timber for 
their own building. 

To the abundance and excellence of 
the hard woods native to Indiana, can be 
directh- traced the greatness of the wood 
manufacturing industries of the State. 
These industries have prospered and 
nuiltiplied, until Indianapolis has become 
the seat of the mo.st ex- 
tensive manufactories of 
certain kinds of furni- 
ture in the world, and 
other cities of the State 
have built up immense 
industries and large 
populations upon the 
same foundation. In its 
rough-sawed form, Indi- 
ana hard wood now is 
in constant demand all 
over the United States, 
and in the form of fur- 
in'ture of all kinds it 
goes to every civilized 
country on the globe. 




RKSiiii';Nt;i'; on North Dki.awark StkicivT. 



^^^■JitV* 



^1' 



\^':jL 1 ' 'lit .j^ 


ifei 






r^F 


W- 


,yl fi 


^ 


yoiK«ai 


ii 


d# 


1 





AI'ARTMI-;NT HolSKS on N\)RTH DKLAWARIv Strkkt. 



FUEL FROM THE OIL FIELD. 




|\V0 years have not elapsed at 
this writing, since the first 
oil well was drilled in the 
region now famous as the 
Indiana oil field. The discovery of oil, 
however, is like the finding of precious 
metals, in the rush of capital and energj' 
which it evokes. Work which, under 
ordinar)' circumstances, would be the 
slow outgrowth of a lifetime, is achie\-ed 
in a few months by the terrific energy 
which inspires men who are excited bj' 
the prospect of sudden riches. The dis- 
covery of an oil well in the edge of the 



same region of the State which a few 
years later became famous for its nat- 
ural gas. The rush of the experienced 
oil men to the new Indiana field, brought 
in its wake a liost of speculators, la- 
borers, capitalists and contractors, and 
for several months the scene presented 
a spectacle of the greatest activity. 

Reservoirs for storing the oil were 
an immediate necessity, as were con- 
necting pipe lines, pumps, derricks, 
drilling machinery, etc. As was to have 
been expected, the Standard Oil Com- 
pany was early on the ground leasing 




Lorraine Block. 
gas field, told an alluring tale of imme- territory. An army of men soon had 
diate opulence to the "old timers" who changed the face of nature greatly, 
remembered the exciting days when oil Towering derricks were to be seen 
was discovered in Pennsylvania, in the everywhere, and relays of workmen 



io6 



IXDIAXAPOIJS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



pushed the slow drills downward day 
and night. The Standard and other 
companies constructed extensive groups 
of huge iron tanks, in which to accu- 
mulate the oil, and a strong, disagree- 
able odor permeated the air over scores 
of square miles. The results of the 
hastj- operations were gratifying. Hun- 
dreds of wells were pouring out oil in 
a few months. Analysis of the product 
proved it to be of excellent quality, rich 
in the elements neces.sary to a good illu- 
minant, and in many instances containing 
the heavier ingredients such as are 
valuable in lubricating oils. The field 
is still rapidly growing in importance. 
The constant drilling of wells is ever}- 
week enlarging the developed area, and 
as j-et, the limits of the oil producing 
territory are unknown. Until they are 
definitely discovered by ex- 
perimental drilling, no one 
will be able to estimate the 
value of the Indiana oil field. 



Enough is already assured, however, to 
cause it to be classed among the great 
oil fields of the country. 

There is no need to dwell upon the 
value of crude oil as a fuel here. The 
invention of devices for introducing the 
oil into furnaces has made it one of the 
simplest, cheapest, and most reliable of 
all fuels, and has vastly enlarged the 
demand for it. Pipe lines have been 
constructed hundreds of miles for the 
purpose of conveying crude oil to cities 
to be used as fuel. Entirely across the 
northern portion of Indiana extends a 
line of pipe carrying oil from the Ohio 
field to Chicago, and hundreds of Chicago 
manufacturers are profiting by the enter- 
prise. This line of pipe was laid before 
the Indiana oil field was discovered. As 
yet no pipe line taps the new field. 
y^ ~\ ^ Large quantities of oil are 
„ y^j shipped away in tank cars and 
used for fuel in many cities. 
Much is refined and becomes 




Kl,KV.\TOR " I).' 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



107 



illuminating or lubricating oil. Indiana- month more manufacturers are taking 

polls is the one large cit)^ near the field, up the use of the oil, however, and were 

and is the logical terminus of a pipe it as convenient and cheap as it would 

line such as will relieve the field of the be with a pipe line laid, there would 




Sl'l'.NCKK 

vast output of oil which the enormous 
development of the territory is causing. 
Shipment in cars is slow, clumsy and 
comparatively expensive, and can only 
serve while a field is new and but par- 
tiall}' developed. As things now are, 
Indianapolis has made only a beginning 
in the utilization of fuel oil. A few of 
her manufacturers have fitted their fur- 
naces for burning oil, and their experi- 
ence, extending over periods ranging 
from a few months to a year or more, 
has been highly encouraging. Every 



IIuuSK. 

without doubt follow a heavy demand. 
On the present advantage of crude 
oil to the city, therefore, not a great 
deal can be said; of its future utilization 
much of import to the city will depend. 
The field is not fully developed, and its 
possibilities can not now be foretold, 
further than to say they are enormous. 
The uncertainty is not whether the 
benefits to be derived from the field 
will be important; but how important? 
There is every reason to predict in 
unqualified utterances that the near 



io8 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



future will behold Indianapolis supple- 
menting her natural gas with a practi- 
cally limitless supply of fuel oil. The 
Standard Company, in constructing a 
pipe line to the city, will be only pur- 
suing the same policy that it has adopted 
elsewhere. It has vast interests in the 
field, and the sooner it can realize on 
them, the greater its profits will be. 
The immense output of oil in the field 
must be consumed. It can not accumu- 



The adage "to him who hath shall 
be given," has been curiouslj- illustrated 
in the history of Indianapolis and her 
fuel supply. Situated on the rim of 
one of the richest coal fields in the 
world, the city seemed especially for- 
tunate in her fuel provision, and was 
the envy of other cities to whom coal 
had to be transported long distances at 
heavy expense. Then the discovery of 
natural gas occurred, and cheap as her 




Ki-.siiii-:nci-: ox 

late indefinitely. Then, too, there are 
heavy moneyed interests at the city end 
of the line which are clamoring for 
what the oil field alone can give. Al- 
ready capitalists in Indianapolis have 
.seriously discussed a project for piping 
oil to the city. The time is coming, 
and is not distant, when a steady current 
of oil will pour into the city, adding an 
important element to the industrial growth 
which the community is entering upon. 



I'AKK A\K.N'ri;. 

coal was, and abundant and excellent as 
it was, Indianapolis practically discarded 
it for gas. Finally, an oil field was 
found, furnishing a third fuel supply 
upon which the city could draw without 
limit and at nominal cost. Thus, while 
most of the cities of the country would 
deem themselves wonderfully fortunate 
had they near at hand either coal, gas or 
oil, Indianapolis already having one, was 
given, in addition to this, the other two. 



KAOLIN, CLAY AND GLASS-SAND. 




^IvAY is so common, that at 
first thought the idea of its 
having an economic value, 
aside from its agricultural 
jirfa "'^i'ity, seems rather absurd. 
y=f^' But a little consideration 
of the extensive industries 
for the manufacture of brick, tile and 
terra cotta will convince the most 
skeptical that clay, as a mineral pro- 
duct, is of the very greatest importance. 
Indiana is so universally supplied with 
excellent brick clay that her inhabitants 
hardly realize that there are large sec- 
tions of country where no clay can be 
had for brick-making, except by expen- 
sive importation from more fortunate 
regions. But while the common clay is 
perhaps more valuable than any other, 
because of its wide distribution and the 
simplicity and cheapness of converting 
it into brick and tile, it is through her 
rarer and finer grades that Indiana is 
to become famous as a clay producing 
State. 

A decade ago it was hardly known 
that the State possessed any clays except 
the common ones mentioned. But ten 
years bring many changes in this era 
of progress. The incredible theories of 
enthusiasts one year, become the familiar 
facts of the next. It is now known 
that Indiana contains beds of clay which 
provide material for the finest quality of 
terra cotta — so fine indeed, that the terra 



cotta manufactured from it is being sub- 
stituted for marble and the best of other 
building stones in many parts of the 
country. It is known also, and demon- 
strated by extensive manufactories which 
have grown up like magic within two 
years, that clays perfectly adapted to the 
making of fire and paving brick are to 
be found in various parts of the State 
in inexhaustible quantity. The paving 
brick industry is one which is only a 
few years old, but, in future, is destined 
to become vast and remunerative. Ex- 
perience has proved brick to be one of 
the best and cheapest street pavements 
known, and the knowledge has led many 
cities to turn to it as a happy solution 
to the vexatious paving problem. 

But it is upon Indiana's kaolin de- 
posits, however, that the world at large 
will in time look with the most gen- 
erous recognition. Kaolin is a clay rare 
and valuable, and always in demand. 
From kaolin the most delicate and costly 
pottery is made. The translucent egg- 
shell china — precious almost as jewels — 
is molded and burned from kaolin. From 
kaolin, too, are made the handsome tiles 
which ornament the hearths and mantels 
of the rich. A deposit of kaolin, once 
its quality is known to be superior, and 
its quantity and accessibility satisfactory, 
is worth as much as a gold mine. Ka- 
olin, or china clay, as it is commonly 
called, is the purest form of clay. When 



INDIAXAPOLIS. INDIANA, U. S. A. 



most valuable, it is composed of almost 
equal parts of silica and alumina with 
about thirteen per cent, of water. The 
ware called china is so called because it 
was first made in China. The process 
of its manufacture was a secret with the 
Chinese for many hundreds of years, 
and great quantities of the ware made 
in China were imported into Europe. 
This ware was manufactured chiefly 
from a peculiar white clay found in the 
mountain of Kaoling, and the name of 
the mountain, corrupted into kaolin, later 
came to be applied to the clay. About 
the beginning of the eighteeuth century 



porcelains of Germany and France are 
maiuifactured at the places where the 
kaolin beds are situated, and the finest 
porcelains made in America come from 
the kaolin deposits or from manufactories 
to which kaoliu is transported. 

This brief mention of the history of 
kaolin and its connection with the most 
perfect products of the potter's art, will 
suffice to give at least a hint of the 
importance which should be attached to 
the fact that Indiana has extensive beds 
of kaolin. Maurice Thompson, while 
State Geologist of Indiana, gave consid- 
erable attention to the kaolin deposits, 

T 




Mill M.\chinerv Works on Big Four Railro.^d (Front View). 

kaolin was imported into Europe, and and in his official reports he speaks 

not a great many years afterward beds repeatedly of their valued certainty of 

of it were discovered in England, Ger- future renown. In the Fifteenth Annual 

many and France, and still later in a State Geological Report, Mr. Thompson 

few places in America. The famous devotes considerable space to the subject 



112 INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 

of kaolin. He saj-s in this report that nificent beds of kaolin, when fnlh' appre- 

kaolin underlies large areas and ranges ciated, will, in future years, be the 

through the colors of white, red, gray, greatest source of our mineral wealth." 

whitish, greenish, bluish and buff The Again: "The uses to which kaolin can 




Residence on North Meridi.'^n Street. 

white variety is the only one of value be put are various. The making of 
for fine white pottery or porcelain, but chinawarc and pottery of all grades is 
the colored varieties are excellent for the chief, but brick and tiles of the 
use in encaustic tiles, terra cotta, etc. most beautiful kinds, as well as fire- 
In one place Mr. Thompson speaks brick and all manner of terra cotta work 
thus of the Indiana kaolin beds: "Here are made from it. It is also largely 
lies a practically exhau.stless quantity of used in the manufacture of paper and 
the most beautiful, pure and desirable alum, and in a number of other pro- 
clay ever offered to the manufacturer of cesses known to manufacturers. * * * 
fine earthenwares, to say nothing of its In Harrison county, pockets of white 
value in various other Iji'anches of nianu- kaolin were found in the gla.ss . sand 
facture. Next to our coals, our natural deposits. * * '■•■ There is, also, in Har- 
gas and our building .stones, these mag- rison county an immense deposit of 



INDIANAPOLLS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



113 



tinted kaolin admirably adapted to the 
purposes of the potter and terra cotta 
worker. Owen county, too, has practi- 
cally inexhaustible beds of the very best 
kaolin. The attention of manufacturers 
is especially directed to these deposits, 
and it is almost certain that other beds 
will be discovered. But the kaolin of 
Lawrence county, taken alone, is suffi- 
cient to build up and maintain for manj- 
years a manufacturing center as great as 
any of the potterj- and porcelain estab- 
lishments of England, France or Ger- 
many. It will pay the State of Indiana 
a good and lasting income to advertise 



ance of some already mentioned, is, never- 
theless, worthy of more than incidental 
mention, is glass-sand. This possesses 
the more interest and value because of 
the fact that Indiana has become the 
greatest glass manufacturing State in the 
Union. In various parts of the vState 
deposits of pure white silicious sand are 
found. It lies in extensive beds, easy to 
excavate. For many years the great 
plate-glass works at New Albany have 
drawn upon sand deposits in the south- 
ern part of the State, and since natural 
gas has brought many glass factories 
into the northeastern counties, beds of 

7^ 




Furniture F.\ctorv on the Big Four R.\ii,ro.\d. 
her internal resources to the world. Her excellent sand have been discovered in 
mineral wealth is to-day greater than that quarter. The beds of glass-sand 
that of many States whose gold and silver already developed keep in the State every 
mines are the wonder of the world." year many thousand dollars which other- 
Yet another of the State's natural wise would have to be expended for 
resources, which, while not of the import- sand obtained from some distant point. 



MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. 




S A seat of manufacturing 
industries, Indianapolis 
is noted no less for 
the number of her es- 
tablishments and the 
variety and value of 
■ their products, than for 
her well-earned reputation of leading 
the world in certain classes of manu- 
factured goods. A curious proof that 
the city is devoid of that spirit of 
bluster which is noted in communities 
where the "boom" fever prevails, is to 
be found in the fact that the pres- 
tige which Indianapolis has attained as 
a manufacturing point is not generally 
realized among her own citizens. Per- 
sons in Australia, Mexico, South Amer- 
ica, Africa, Europe and the islands of 
the sea know what the mass of the 
inhabitants of Indianapolis do not know, 
namely, that this city exceeds any other 
on the globe in the quantity and quality 
of the heavy milling machinery, the 
desks, the chairs, the lounges, the wood- 
en-ware, the encaustic tiles, the terra 
cotta, the road carts, the vehicle wheels, 
the malleable iron and the corn food 
products which it annualh' manufactures. 
In addition to these chief industries 
are hundreds of others of large extent. 
Full eleven hundred separate manufact- 
uring establishments are located in In- 
dianapolis, the number of employes in 
different lines of production ranging 
from scores to thousands, and the total 



inimber of persons employed in manu- 
facturing in the city reaching probably 
twenty-five thousand or more. The value 
of the combined production of all the 
manufactories in the city is estimated at 
between sixty and seventy million dollars 
a year. Some of the principal industries, 
aside from those above mentioned, to- 
gether with the value of their annual 
products in round numbers, are the fol- 
lowing: 



ches. 



Stoves, 

Soap, 

Railroad Progs and Swi 

Fertilizers, 

Belting, 

Electric Machinery, 

Canned Goods, 

Chemicals, 

Medicine, 

Pumps, 

Starch, 

Woolen Goods, 

Wheels, 

Fruit Packing, 

Overalls, 

Saws, 

Natural Gas Supplies, 

Stone, 

Carriages and Wagons, 

Agricultural Implements, 

Staves and Headings, 

Architectural Iron, . 

Cars 

Beer, 

Railroad Supplies and Repai 

Engines, Boilers and Foundri 

Builders' Materials, . 

Pork Packing, . 



$100,000 

100,000 

200,000 

250,000 

275,000 

300,000 

300,000 

350,000 

500,000 

500,000 

500,000 

700,000 

750,000 

800,000 

Soo.ooo 

1,000,000 

1,000,000 

1 ,000,000 

1 ,900,000 

1 ,900,000 

2,000,000 

2,000,000 

2,500,000 

3,000,000 

, 3,000,000 

, 3,000,000 

3,100,000 

10,000,000 



Especially in the production of wares 
which require skill and inventive genius 
in their manufacture is Indianapolis fa- 
mous. In some instances these qualities 




Tii.E Works. 




Manufactory ok Chemicals. 



are shown in the wares themselves, and in others in 
the machinery necessary to produce them. Particu- 
larly through its milling machinery and its fur- 
niture of various kinds has the city become 
known in the distant regions of the earth. 
Wherever wheat is grown in large quan- 
tity, Indianapolis mills are known to be 
the best for grinding it; wherever peo- 
ple are enlightened sufficiently to 
take pleasure in the comfort aud 
quality of their furniture, Indi- 
anapolis furniture is to be 
found. Ever)' railroad on 
the continent has trans- 
ported m a n u f a c t u r e d 
wares from Indianap- 
olis, and every line 
of ocean steamers 
t o u c 1: i n g the 
shores of the 




United States 
y has borne to 
.<?■ foreign lands the 
products of her in- 
^«v dustries. Various man- 
ufactories in the city 
ve built up a large and 
trade in other coun- 
tries. Shipments of flouring- 
mills, saw-mills, furniture, en- 
gines, agricultural implements, 
wagons, carts, chemicals, canned 
0d Jf' goods, pork, wooden-ware, woolen 
I r r goods and other products of our factories, 
to Canada, Mexico, the vSouth American 
States, Australia, Ivurope, the Sandwich 
Islands, South Africa and Asia as well, are of 
so frequent occurrence as to have become common 
and are no longer thought worthy of special note. 
As a seat of furniture manufacture, Indianapolis has 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



119 



a brief but brilliant histor}'. Not a 
great many years ago it began, and the 
first men to venture into it achieved 
a remarkable success. This naturally 
led others into the business, and they 
too were successful. Since then, a tre- 
mendous growth in the industry has 
followed, until now there are about 
forty furniture manufacturing establish- 
ments in the city, employing in all 
some thirty-five hundred men, and pro- 
ducing goods worth seven million dol- 
lars a 3'ear. The business has grown 



of parlor furniture, bed-room suites, 
tables, etc., the citj- has made no such 
progress. Within the last year or two, 
some attention has been turned toward 
those branches of the business with 
gratifying results, and it is certain that 
a few years more will see them ranking 
well up with the kindred industries of 
chair, desk and lounge making. 

In many particulars, the same advan- 
tages which have contributed to the suc- 
cess of furniture manufacture, are those 
necessary to the profitable production of 




up principally in the production of the thousand and one different important 
lounges, desks and chairs. The most and unimportant articles which fall under 
extensive manufactory of chairs and the the general classification of wooden-ware, 
largest desk manufactory in the world In this line of fabrication, too, Indiana- 
are in Indianapolis. In the production polis is a world leader, and sends her 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



121 



goods to every land inhabited by civil- 
ized men. 

The manufacture of flour mills has 
not been taken up by many different 
persons, but has been centered in a few 
very large establishments. This is to be 
accounted for chiefly on the ground that 
valuable patents upon milling machinery 
are always the property of the fortunate 
few, and that a good deal of capital 
mu,st be invested in the plant before any 



factory of flour mills in the world is in 
Indianapolis. In this line of business in 
the city there is now invested about one 
and a half million dollars, and the value 
of the annual output is some five million 
dollars. 

The growth in wagon, carriage and 
cart manufacturing is one of the most 
remarkable of the city's newer industries. 
Ten 3^ears ago this line of manufacture 
was not even of secondary importance in 







relurns begin to come in. Then, too, a 
long experience in the trade, and excep- 
tional administrative ability are more 
essential in this line of business, perhaps, 
than in manv others. The largest manu- 



the city. Seven or eight years ago the 
entrance of new men into the business 
started a rapid advance movement which 
has not yet ceased nor paused, and the 
result is that in some branches of the 



INDIANAPOI^IS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



123 



vehicle trade, Indianapolis is supreme. 
This is especially true of the manufact- 
ure of the light, convenient road carts 
which have become popular in many 



and States, is in Indianapolis, and the 
number of wheels produced in the 
course of a year is almost incompre- 
hensible. The nearness of forests of 




Centkau Avknue M. E. Chl'Rch. 



countries. A single establishment in this 
city has a capacity to build, complete, 
everj^ twenty-four hours, one thousand 
of these carts. The manufacture of 
wheels for wagons, buggies, etc., in late 
years has become an immense business, 
distinct in itself. The central and largest 
establishment of a corporation which 
controls the wheel market in the United 
States, and owns plants in many cities 



hickory and oak has made this great 
industry highly profitable. 

One of the newest of the city's 
extensive industries is the manufacture 
of various food products from corn. 
Plain corn-meal is now only one of many 
wholesome articles of food made from 
corn. Some of them are the basis for 
the most delicate and delicious of dishes. 
This has become possible in recent years 




■X 



o 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA. U. S. A. 



125 



through iiigeuious inventions and much 
study of the constituent elements of corn, 
and it has led to the building up of vast 
manufacturing establishments of a kind 
unheard of a few years ago. The largest 
of all of the mills of this character is in 
Indianapolis. It was brought here by 
outside capital because of the limitless 
corn supply all around, and the un- 
equaled facilities for transporting both 
corn and product in any direction 
promptly and cheaply. Directly akin to 
this industry is that of starch manufact- 
ure. The large starch works of the city 
have not only been ahva>-s immensely 
profitable, but their business has out- 
grown their facilities, and extensions 
doubling the capacity of the works are 
even now matters of current discussion. 
It is estimated that the total annual 
product of the manufactories in Indiana- 
polis which work entirely in iron, is 
worth over $10,000,000. The city is 
proud of her trade with foreign coun- 
tries. Her saws, driven by her engines, 
are clearing away the forests of Central 
and South America. Her stoves give 
comfort to other nations, and her electric 
machinery furnishes power in many 
lands. Her steam pumps are working 
in mines and shops in home and foreign 
States. All over the United States her 
machinery is familiar. Buildings contain 
her architectural iron-work. Her railroad 
frogs and switches go down wherever 
American railroads are constructed. More 
than a passing mention is due the repu- 
tation of Indianapolis as a .seat of engine 
manufacture. All over the countrv, en- 



gines built by certain of the large estab- 
lishments in this city are standards of 
excellence. The same is true of the 
saws manufactured in the city. The 
demand for them is so great as to be 
almost beyond the ability of the makers 
to satisfy it. 

Turn to the subject of encaustic tiles, 
and Indianapolis will be again found to 
pos.se.ss predominant excellence among 
all rivals. The floors in public buildings 
in every State in the Union are of Indi- 
anapolis tile. It is superseding marble 
because of its superior beauty and dura- 
bility. In the decoration of both the 
interior and exterior of residences, artistic 
tile is assuming the place once held in 
the public favor by marbles and carving. 
In all the.se u.ses, the tile from Indiana- 
polis has received the honor of highest 
preferment. It excels in the quality of 
the material of which it is composed 
and in artistic execution and coloring. 
The best proof of the truth of all this 
is to be found in the fact of the great 
extent and pro.sperity of the city's tile 
business. In the iutroductiou of natural 
gas, the tile industry has been peculiarly 
benefited. Experience has .shown that 
the fierce, steady heat of the gas flame 
produces in the kiln a quality of tile 
impossible to make with coal as fuel. 
The manufacture of terra cotta being in 
some degree related to that of tile, may 
be noted in connection witli it. The 
terra cotta made in Indianapolis is fa- 
mous throughout the country. It is 
susceptible to the highest expression of 
the sculptor's art, is durable and .solid 




■f. 

V. 






■r. 
y 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



127 



as granite, and is every year assuming 
a more prominent place in the favor of 
architects and builders. 

And so the list might be extended 
almost indefinitely. The industries named 
are of the most important in the citj', 
but there are others fully as important 
and extensive. The manufacture of bi- 
cycles has become an enormous industry. 
The l)re\veries stand for an investment 
of millions, and their revenues are cor- 
respondingly great. The manufacture of 
lumber, brick, stone, hardware, etc., all 
grouped under the general head of 
"builders' materials," is of the utmost 
importance. The annual production of 
natural gas supplies is extensive. The 
pork packed annually in Indianapolis is 
by firms which have invested millions. 
It is impossible here to even mention 
by name all the hundreds of manufact- 
uring enterprises which deserve favora- 
ble notice for their extent and success. 



The statement that these manufac- 
tories are thriving, does not sufficiently 
emphasize the degree of their prosperity. 
They are, in hundreds of instances, 
experiencing a rapid and sub.stantial 
growth. New buildings are going up, 
new machinery coming in, more men are 
being emploj-ed, new departments of 
work added. This is the story to be 
heard on all sides, and it tells of the 
city's dawning commercial expansion as 
nothing el.se can. It is the inevitable 
result of such conditions as have come 
to prevail in Indianapolis. With all the 
circumstances favorable upon which a 
a business depends, the end is success 
sure and soon. 

It were impo.ssible to note all the 
conditions which affect the success of a 
manufacturing busine.ss; those important 
in one class of production being often 
unimportant in another. But there are 
certain general factors, whose presence, 




:\lA.M.'F.\croKv i)i' ConN Products. 



128 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



in some degree, is essential to success, and low rates. Of the cheap fuel, not a 

and the greater the degree, the greater great deal need be said here. Crude oil 

the ensuing success. One of these fac- is cheaper than coal, while the cost of 

tors is transportation facilities: another is natural gas is less than half that of the 

cheap fuel; another easj- access to raw black mineral. But while this is true 




W.Mil.KV 

material; another suitaVile location, and 
another a quiet, contented force of work- 
men at reasonable wages. All of these 
Indianapolis has to offer in their most 
efficient form. Her railroads provide di- 
rect and prompt communication with 
neighboring cities, with the finest agri- 
cultural region in the world, and with 
areas of vast mineral wealth. They thus 
bring in materials for manufacture and 
carry to market the finished products. 
With it all, there is enough of competi- 
tion to make certain, first-class .service 



VV I'l.AUK. 

both in regard to gas and oil, it is nn 
less true that coal of the fi".est quality 
for manufacturing pur]K).ses is cheaper in 
Indianapolis than in almost any other 
city in the country. Thus is the fuel 
question settled satisfactorily for all time 
to come. 

In the matter of suitable sites for 
manufactories, Indianapolis simply can 
not be equalled. The city is surrounded 
by a bell railroad, which connects with 
every one of the sixteen railroads en- 
tering the citv. The cars of all the 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



129 



roads, b}- a permanent arrangement, are 
transferred about the Belt at a nominal 
cost. This gives to a factor}- situated 
ou the Belt all the advantages of being 
upon sixteen railroads diverging in every 
direction, and all competing for its busi- 
ness. The Belt is far enough beyond the 
city limits to allow laud along its route 
to be purchased cheaply. The decrease 
of the danger of fire, and consequently 
of insurance rates, are also points to be 
considered. Finallv, the class of work- 



prevent trouble among employes is illus- 
trated in the city frequently, and is a 
matter of common appreciation. The 
cost of living is exceedingly low, and 
although the wages paid average small, 
the workmen are enabled to save and 
invest in homes. 

The simple truth is that Indianapolis 
is equipped as few cities are to assure 
success to manufacturers who settle 
within her gates. The conditions essen- 
tial to the profitable operation of mills 




Ri:siiii-;nxi'; ox Xort 
ingmen in Indianapolis is above the 
average of cities. A surprisingly large 
per cent, of the wage earners have real 
estate and live in their own houses. 
These men are conservative and reason- 
able, and act as a check upon the 
element which has nothing to lose by 
agitating labor questions. The power of 
the industrious, property-owning men to 



H JlHRnU.\N Stkkf.t. 

are here to be found in their best form. 
The rich surrounding territorj- of a 
hundred thotisand square miles is at 
once an exhatistless source of raw ma- 
terial and a never satisfied market for 
finished wares. The means of transpor- 
tation to and from it are well-nigh 
perfect. Embracing and supporting all 
the other conditions is the jniblic sjiirit, 



I30 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



friendly to iucomiug capital, and pre- extends her broad arms to welcome 
IKired to go to any reasonable length to more, with the assurance upon her lips 
encourage and protect it. Here, then, that all which come to work with indus- 




K.Ml'lKK TllKAlKK. 

is the picture, and it is an attractive try and care in her fields of commerce 

one: A city stirred' V)y the roar of a shall be alike jirosperous and busy, and 

thousand mills, prosperous and growing, in the end shall grow strong and great. 



THE WHOLESALE TRADE, 




ORDER that it may be- 
come the center of an 
important wholesale or 
jobbing trade, a city must 
possess two prime advan- 
tages : It must have first- 
class railway facilities, and 
must be surrounded by a populous and 
thrifty region of country. Both of these 



roads, Indianapolis is brought into direct 
and prompt communication with fully a 
thousand cities and towns, for which she 
is the natural base of supplies. The 
thickl>' settled and prosperous agricult- 
ural communities which form a zone a 
hundred miles wide all round, send up 
a never satisfied demand for the neces- 
saries and comforts of life. Millions of 




Residence on North Meridian Street. 

advantages it is the fortune of Indiana- people are to be fed and clothed and 

polis to enjoy to an unusual extent. housed, and the logical center from 

No cit)' in the United States excels her which their wants should be supplied is 

in these particulars. With her sixteen Indianapolis. The conditions for fulfill- 

railroads threading the country in every ing this mission are entirely favorable, 

direction, and intersecting scores of other The cost of transportation is low, and 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. vS. A. 



the service is prompt : the distances are 
sliort; the people are friendly to the cit>- 
and ready to draw upon it for what 
they need. The stone, coal, oil and gas 
fields surrounding, are fdling up witli 
thriving towns and cities, which must 
rely on some large point of distribution 
for their supplies. Kver\- law of trade 
and every geographical consideration fix 
uijon Indianapolis as the place. 

As would be expected after this sur- 
vey of the existing conditions, the whole- 
sale and jobbing business in Indianapolis 
is in a flourishing state. A trip through 
the wholesale district, along South Meri- 
dian, South Peinisylvania, South Dela- 
ware, Maryland, Georgia, or McCrea 
streets, will impress this deeply on the 
visitor's memory. The rumble of hea\'ily 
laden drays, the sidewalks blockaded by 
mountains of boxes and crates and bales, 
the hurry and confusion of porter's roll- 
ing the goods about, the short, sharp 
commands of men directing the work, 
all together, impart a sense of an im- 
portant business movement. That this 
impression is not a mistaken one, is 
proven by the fact that the sales of the 
wholesale merchants of Indianapolis ag- 
gregate in round numbers $40,000,000 a 
year. There are in the city over three 
hundred wholesale and jobbing houses, 
and in their employ are about one 
thousand traveling salesmen. Several of 
the largest houses in the West are 
located here, and annually many hun- 
dred thousand dollars worth of goods of 
various kinds are imported directly from 
European and other foreign countries. 



The expansion of the wholesale trade 
has been marked li>- no sudden bursts 
oi development. It has been steady, and 
while not exceptionally rapid, has been 
substantial, conservative, and thoroughly 
safe. For several years, the rate of ex- 
])ansion has been somewhat quickened 
abo\-e what it had previously been, the 
business responding to the impetus which 
came of the great inrush of capital and 
population in the gas and oil fields. 
This growth in the volume of business 
is manifested both by an increa.se in the 
number of wholesale hou.ses and a build- 
ing up of the firms already established. 
Wholesale houses in Indianapolis do not 
fail. vSuch an event has not occurred in 
many >'ears. On the other hand, firms 
which entered the trade a few years ago 
have grown strong, and every year sees 
several beginners venture into the field. 
The removal of wholesale firms from 
other cities to this, for the sake of the 
magnificent railroad facilities, is not an 
uncommon occurrence. Every passing 
twelve-month witnesses a widening of 
the fame of Indianapolis as a prosperous 
and desirable wholesale center. Besides 
its superiority as a center for distribu- 
tion, it has noteworthy advantages be- 
cause of its direct communication with 
the many cities from which the wares to 
be sold at wholesale must be obtained. 
The merchants of the city have for 
j^ears cultivated trade in the South. By 
ascertaining the especial needs* of that 
section of the country, and making an 
honest effort to satisfy them, they have 
won great prestige in man\' Southern 



I.u 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, l". S. A. 



States, and are enabled to easily outstrip 
all competitors. In a large number of 
communities south of the Ohio River, 
a commercial traveler needs no better 
recommendation than a statement that 
he represents some Indianapolis business 
house. The development of the inex- 



very gates of surrounding cities, and 
have established strong business connec- 
tions beyond them. Thej- have gone 
beyond Louisville and Cincinnati, and 
built up a strong trade in the South 
which the latter cities can not weaken. 
They have gone into Michigan, and 




Brixswick Hotel. 

haustible mineral resources of Tennessee, found permanent patrons within a few 

Alabama, Georgia, Missouri and other miles of Detroit. They have beaten 

States, have enlarged the field of demand Chicago in Michigan, also in many 

for wares from the North, and the extent places. They have invaded Ohio and 

of the business is rapidly growing. It is Illinois, and a large per cent, of their 

a noteworthy fact that Indianapolis mer- entire business is done in those two 

chants have carried their trade into the States. They have even pushed beyond 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



135 



St. Louis and Kansas City, and annuall)- 
send large quantities of goods west of 
the Missouri River. 

While a great number of lines of 
trade are represented in the wholesale 
district of Indianapolis, the city is es- 
pecially strong in its wholesale drj- 
goods, millinery, drugs, hardware, queens- 
ware, grocery, confectionery and poultry 
departments. The volume of business 
done in these lines is enormous. As a 
poultry shipping point, the city has no 
equal on the continent. Her queens-ware 
men are among the largest importers in 
the West. The dry goods trade is sup- 
plied by several houses of long estab- 
lished reputation and recognized finan- 
cial stability, and the same is true of 
the trade in drugs. In groceries, not- 
withstanding the intense competition, 
there are man\' wholesale firms, and. 



without exception, the)' are prosperous. 
A review of the entire list of houses 
doing a wholesale business would be 
simph- a series of repetitions of the 
story of growing trade and encouraging 
prosperity. The summing up of all is, 
that whatever is to be purchased for the 
retail trade may be obtained in Indian- 
apolis cheaply and promptly, and with 
the smallest amount of risk in the trans- 
portation. In all the conditions which 
affect the wholesale trade, Indianapolis is 
peculiarly fortunate. She has much to 
offer to those who engage in wholesale 
enterprise within her gates, and to all, 
her bounty is impartial and generous. 
The uniform prosperity accompanying the 
beginning and extension of those houses 
now established in Indianapolis is an 
index of the fulfillment of the promises 
extended to all who mav come. 



'^^'P'fell^ 





V_1M1I1.N lAl.iiiK\ ii.\ 1111. W'KST SIDU. 



THE RETAIL TRADE, 




THE stimulus of the progressive proof is required to demonstrate that 

spirit which has come into the "times are hard" with the people. On 

life of Indianapolis, has been the other hand, the same rule is safely 

nowhere more clearly manifested than applicable. If there is a demand for 

in the various branches of retail trade, articles which are classed among the 

The development of the interests which comforts or luxuries of existence, the 

have to do with the transfer of commodi- community as a whole is prosperous, 

ties from the wholesaler to the con.sumer, thrifty and content. At the same time 

has been especially noteworthy within a that the character of the sales indicates 

period of five years. In that time it is the material condition of the community, 

probable that the investment of capital it unfailingly discloses the state of the 

in the various lines of retail trade in the trade from the merchant's stand-point, 

city has increased one hundred per cent. A prosperous people inevitably means 

Because of the intimate relationship prosperous merchants. Thej- can net be 

which must always exist between the separated. 

retail business and the public in any Any inciuir^- into the general business 
community, there is no better method of conditions existing in Indianapolis is in- 
ascertaining the general condition of the complete without a reference to the im- 
people than by a careful inquiry into the portance and extent of the cit>''s retail 
state of the retail trade. If .sales are interests. They compose one of the 
confined strictly to essentials, no further chief elements of the busy commercial 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



139 



life of the community. Tht-ir giowth 
has been slow or rapid, accordingly as 
the city has prospered, but there has 
always been a growth. Old houses have 
extended their trade and increased their 
stocks, while scores of new firms have 
been established. Failures ha\-e been 
few, ami have invariably involved only 
small amounts of capital. 

The period of time mentioned has 
witnessed the advent of what are known 
as department stores, with all the com- 
binations of diverse kinds of business, 
under one management, which that term 
implies. Several of these emporiums of 
trade are now carrying on immense and 
highly successful mercantile operations. 
Large buildings ha\-e been erected for 
t'.um, anil each requires an army of 
employes. Annual sales have leaped 
from thousands to millions of dollars. 
The universal prosperity of the people 
juakes generous buyers, and into small 
as well as large homes have gone 
unwonted luxuries. 

The retail business puts money into 
active circulation in innumerable small 
cliannels, without sending it out of the 
region in which the business is carried 
on. It does this because it requires the 
assistance of many customers and many 
employes to be successful. In the nature 
(if its transactions, it must be in close 
touch with the tastes, habits and mone- 
tary conditions of the community, and 
is an unfailing measure of them. With 
the new and broader life which has- 
come to Indianapolis, the recent great 
expansion of the city's retail interests 



has been intimately connected. While 
the latter has been primaril)- dependent 
upon the former, it has al.so been an 
influence of no mean power in deter- 
mining the direction and limits of that 
new life. It has not only kept pace 
with the widening demands of the pub- 
lic, but has led, by bringing the choicest 
wares from all quarters of the globe and 
placing them within reach of the people. 
This spirit of progress is an educating 
force, exerted alike upon the merchant 
and the public, and the results which 
flow from it are of lasting value. 

These facts are general, but there are 
others connected with the retail trade in 
Indianapolis which are of especial value 
in this community. Of them, the most 
important is the successful effort which 
the larger retail houses have made to 
draw patronage from the country and 
country towns surrounding the city. By 
persistent determination and skillful 
management, carried on during several 
years, Indianapolis retail merchants have 
established an out-of-town patronage of 
the most gratifying proportions. This 
has been accomplished largely through 
the medium of cheap railroad rates, se- 
cured by the merchants for special occa- 
sions, and advertised widelj- in the 
regions of country through which the 
roads exteiul on which the reduced rates 
are given. These excursions bring a 
great many thousand persons to the city 
every season. At first, the excursionists 
came almost solely for pleasure, but it 
was not long before they began to com- 
prehend the uuusiuil opportunities for 




CiRCLK Park IIciTki,. 




SlM-KMAN IIiIlM': 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA. U. S. A. 



141 



makiug needed purchases which the trip 
to the city afforded. They saw that 
they were enabled to exercise a better 
choice, having a much greater variety of 
goods from which to select, and they 
soon learned that the difference in cost 
between the prices which they had to 
pay at home and in Indianapolis, made 
it actually cheaper for them to come to 
the city and buy. The double induce- 
ment of more satisfactory goods and 
lower prices was a potent influence, and 
now thousands of persons who live any- 
where within a hundred miles of Indian- 
apolis make all their more important 
purchases in this city. 

What helps one merchant in this 
way, helps all, and helps the entire city 
as well. Those who take advantage of 
the cheap railroad rates secured by one 



business house, buy of many, and in 
the period of a year, the stimulus and 
benefit which result from the countrj' 
trade built up in this way, are of the 
utmost importance. 

From whatever stand-point a view of 
the retail interests of Indianapolis may 
be taken, they will be found worthy of 
the pride with which the city regards 
them. In extent, variety, area of trade 
and monetary importance, they rank 
high, and the same is no less true of the 
integrity, progressiveness and skill with 
which their direction is administered. 
The retail business was among the earli- 
est to feel the quickening of the city's new 
life, to comprehend its significance, and to 
so adjust itself as to cordially accept and 
profit by the broader and more complex 
conditions which had come to prevail. 




Tennis Grounds in Akmstrono Park. 



BANKS AND BANKING. 



FAITHFUL historian, writing 
of banks and banking 
in Indianapolis, can 
not relate a story of 
uninterrnpted prosper- 
ity. To write of suc- 
cess is always pleas- 
anter than to tell of 
failure and disaster, but truth can not be 
changed to accord with desire. It must 




no other kind of institution carries loss 
and anxiety into so many homes and 
business houses. The bank is the finan- 
cial center and conservator of the com- 
munity. Upon its solidit}' depends the 
equilibrium of the multifarious interests 
about and connected with it. The down- 
fall of a bank shatters the foundations 
of the material structure of society. 
The bank troubles in Indianapolis 




In Woodruff Place. 



therefore be recorded that Indianapolis began with the collapse of the "boom." 
banks have in time past gone down in There had been several preceding j-ears 
ruin and wretchedness. The failure of of boundless speculation, in which an 



IXniAXAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



145 



enormous aggregate debt had been con- 
tracted b}' the people. Real estate was 
mortgaged upon the basis of the specula- 
tive prices. When the reaction came, 
and prices dropped back to actual values, 
thousands of pieces of property were 
found to be mortgaged for far more than 
they could be sold for. The banks, 
j'ielding to the spirit of the time, had 
been carried awaj- by the mad infatua- 
tion of speculation. They had made the 
common mistake of taking the inflated 
values for the real, and when the era 



close their doors. The failure of the 
first bank which succumbed, weakened 
the others, and hastened the downfall of 
the next. Then, extending over a period 
of several years, followed a series of 
bank disasters. One great financial in- 
stitution after another fell, and plunged 
the people into deeper ruin. The mem- 
orable panic, which swept over the 
whole country at this time, magnified 
the troubles, and precluded all possibility 
of aid coming from the outside. The 
stricken city had to fight its battle alone. 



* -St 



>^*^'^;r 






^^-^m 



Seventh D.w .\dventist Chi kch. 
of liquidation came, they were unable But the worst was reached at last 

to carry the burdens which were forced and there came a change for the better, 
upon them. They could not recover Confidence began to return to the busi- 
money from the paralyzed public, and ness community. There was the consola- 
nothing remained for them to do but tion that all make-believe and all ficti- 



146 



IXDIAXAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



tious values had vanished. People knew 
again where the)- stood ; their feet were 
upon solid ground, and, what was most 
important, they had learned a lesson 
which would never have to be taught a 
second time. In the reviving confidence 
of the period, the banks which had 
weathered the storm shared generously. 
The)', with others subsequently founded, 
entered a compact for mutual assistance 
in time of emergency, and formed a 
clearing house association which ever 
since has been of great convenience and 
benefit. From the turn in the tide of 
affairs, after the end of the reign of 
disaster until to-day, the history of bank- 
ing in Indianapolis has been a matter 
of pride to her people. All her finan- 
cial institutions are now regarded as 



indelible impression, the manifestation of 
which is .seen in a steadfast avoidance 
of all doubtful methods, a close ad- 
herence to the lines of action recognized 
as safest, and a generally conservative 
and dignified policy of administration. 

Five National, one State, and two 
private banks are now of the financial 
institutions of the city. The total paid- 
up capital stock of the eight banks is 
$2,800,000, of which, $1,400,000 is the 
aggregate of the National banks, and 
$1,400,000 of the State and private 
banks. The clearings, now over $200,- 
000,000 a year, are increasing at a rate 
which of itself is a reliable index of an 
expansion vast and permanent in the 
city's business. An intelligent idea of 
the standing of the Indianapolis banks 




Ki. 



.Nci; ON North l)i.i..\\v.\Kii Stkickt. 



practically impregnable. Every precau- may be gained from the following certi- 
tion of safety has been adopted. The fied statements of their condition at the 
lesson of the stormy years left an close of business, September 30, 1S92: 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



147 



INDIANA NATIONAL BANK. 
RESOURCES. 

Loans and discounts $1,901,639 74 

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured, 340 67 

U. S. Bonds to secure circulation, 4s, 50,000 00 

U. S. Bonds to secure deposits, 4j^s, 150,000 00 

Due from appproved re- 
serve agents, .... I790.239 39 

Due from other National 

Banks, 1 14,670 43 

Due from State Banks 

and bankers, .... 61,067 9S 

Checks and other cash 

items i,2oS 56 

Exchanges for city banks 33.432 70 

Bills of other banks, . . 145,735 00 

Fractional paper curren- 
cy, nickels and cents. 1,066 oS 

Gold reserve, .... 715,000 00 

Silver 20,200 00 

Legal tender notes, . . 90,000 00-1,972,620 14 

Redemption fund with U. S. Treasurer 

(5 per cent, of circulation), . . . 2,250 00 

Total 14,076,850 55 

LIABILITIES. 

Capital stock paid in $300,000 00 

Surplus fund 500,000 00 

Undivided profits 60,281 63 

National Bank notes outstanding, . 45,000 00 

Individual deposits sub- 
ject to check, . . . $1,624,041 39 

Demand certificates of 

deposit 495,195 21 

Certified checks, .... 2,073 0° 

United States deposits, . . 47,978 91 

Deposits of U. S. disburs- 
ing officers, .... 71,555 13 

Due to other National 

Banks, 526,181 48 

Due to State Banks and 

bankers 404,543 80-3,171,568 92 

Total 14.076,850 55 



INDIANAPOLIS NATIONAL BANK. 

RESOURCES. 

Loans and discounts $1,396,329 33 

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured, 757 04 

U. S. Bonds to secure circulation, . 50,000 00 

Banking-house, furniture and fixtures 10,000 00 

Other real estate and mortgages 

owned, 34,850 00 

U. S. Bonds to secure de- 
posits, $325,000 00 

Due from approved re- 
serve agents, .... 394,120 52 

Due from other National 

Banks, 18,743 44 

Due from State Banks 

and bankers 14.409 01 

Checks and other cash 

items, 16,266 36 

Exchanges for clearing- 
house 92,043 27 

Bills of other banks, . . 73,314 "o 

Fractional paper curren- 
cy, nickels and cents, 855 74 

Specie 121.324 30 

Legal-tender notes, . . 130,000 00-1,186,076 64 

Redemption fund with U. S. Treasurer 

(5 per cent, of circulation), . . . 2,25000 

Total, $2,680,263 01 

LI.iBILITIES. 

Capital stock paid in $300,000 00 

Surplus fund 60,000 00 

Undivided profits 66,996 69 

National Bank notes outstanding, . 45.000 00 

Dividends unpaid 294 00 

Individual deposits sub- 
ject to check $915,933 47 

Demand certificates of 

deposit, 347,898 02 

Certified checks, . . . 6,377 '5 

United States deposits, . S3.409 79 
Deposits of U. S. disburs- 
ing officers, .... 216,632 94 
Due to other National 

Banks, 350,087 23 

Due to State Banks and 

bankers 287,633 72-2,207,972 32 

Total $2,680,263 "I 




< 

a 
a 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



149 



MERCHANTS' NATIONAl, BANK. 

RESOURCES. 

Loans and discounts (demand loans 

1340,000) $837,758 70 

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured, . 4S0 4S 

U. S. Bonds to secure circulation, . . 50,000 00 

Premiums on U. S. Bonds 3,000 00 

City of Indianapolis, Marion county, 

and other bonds 302,530 99 

Premiums on Indianapolis, Marion 
county, and other bonds, .... 6,099 5^ 

Due from approved re- 
serve agents $314,970 39 

Due from other National 

Banks, 34,243 01 

Due from State Banks 
and bankers 15,724 67 

Checks and other cash 

items, 2,43s 39 

Exchanges for clearing- 
house, 9,189 44 

Bills of other banks, . . 62,596 00 

Fractional paper curren- 
cy, nickels and cents, 200 24 

Specie, 103,260 00 

Legal tender notes, . . 260,000 00 — 802,622 14 

Furniture, fixtures and vault, . . . 20,425 95 

Redemption fund with U. S. Treas- 
urer (5 per cent, of circulation, . . 2,250 00 

Due from U. S. Treasurer, other than 

5 per cent, redemption fund, . . 1.423 50 



CAPITAL NATIONAL BANK. 

RESOURCES. 

Loans and discounts, $1,180,870 98 

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured, . 226 29 

U. S. Bonds to secure circulation, . . 50,000 00 

Stocks and bonds 29,625 00 

Premium on U. S. Bonds 8,000 00 

Banking-house furniture and fixtures, 5,377 05 
Current expenses and taxes paid, . . 6,235 95 
Due from approved re- 
serve agents $357,961 18 

Due from other National 

Banks 26,809 62 

Due from Slate Banks 

and bankers 33.647 23 

Checks ami other cash 

items 2,176 78 

Exchange for clearing- 
house, 14,030 04 

Bills of other banks, . . 63,905 00 
Fractional paper curren- 
cy, nickels and cents, 124 59 

Specie, 9.394 00 

Legal-tender notes, . . 50,000 00- 
Redeniption fund with V. S. Treas- 



Total $2,026,591 



urer (5 per cent, of circulation), . 
Total 



558,048 44 

2,250 00 
$1,840,633 71 



LIABILITIES. 

Capital stock paid in, $300,000 00 

Surplus fund 45,000 00 

Undivided profits 12,021 35 

National Bank notes outstanding, . 40,700 00 

Individual deposits sub- 
ject to check, . . . $1,256,74395 

Demand certificates of 

deposit 227,704 23 

Certified checks, ... 55 40 

Cashier's checks out- 
standing 60,558 90 

Due to other National 

Banks 79,028 44 

Due to State Banks and 

bankers 4,779 o5~i,62S,.S69 97 



LIABILITIES. 

Capital stock paid in $300,000 00 

Surplus fund 20,000 00 

Undivided profits 26,801 01 

National Bank notes outstanding, . 45,000 00 
Individual deposits sub- 
ject to check, .... $466,960 47 
Demand certificates of 

deposit 218,213 91 

Certified checks, . . . 269 80 

Due to other National 

Banks 378.893 08 

Due to State banks and 

bankers 384.495 44-1.448,832 70 



Total $2,026,591 32 



Total, 



$1,840,633 71 



INDIANAPOLIS, 

MERIDIAX NATKIXAL BANK. 
RESOURCES. 

Loans and discounts, 11,125,325 02 

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured, . 3,003 01 

U. S. Bonds to secure circulation, . . 100,000 00 

U. S. Bonds on hand, 1,000 00 

Stocks, securities, etc., 87,718 13 

Banking-house, furniture and fixtures, 1,000 00 

Due from approved re- 
serve agents, .... $150,120 23 
Due from other National 

Banks 26,546 65 

Due from State Banks 

and bankers '9,384 78 

Current expenses and 

taxes paid 5,483 62 

Exchanges for clearing- 
house, 30,675 99 

Checks and other cash 

items 4,526 73 

Bills of other banks, . . 133,80000 
Fractional paper curren- 
cy, nickels and cents, . 245 00 

Specie, 142,000 00 

Legal tender notes, . . 100,00000 — 607,29938 
Redemption fund with U. S. Treas- 
urer (5 per cent, of circulation), . . 4,500 00 

Total f 1.935.329 16 

LIABILITIKS. 

Capital stock paid in |20o,ooo 00 

Surplus fund 100,000 00 

Undivided profits, 75,301 o-; 

National Bank notes outstanding, . 90,000 00 

Individual deposits sub- 
ject to check $901,407 07 

Demand certificates of 
fleposit 137.697 44 

Certified checks, . . . 13,00000 

Cashier's checks out- 
standing 31,812 63 

Due to other National 

Banks i54,.86o 69 

Due to State Banks and 

bankers 231,250 30-1,470,028 13 

Total fi.935.329 16 



INDIANA, U. S. A. 151 

FLETCHERS BANK. 

RESOURCES. 

Loans and discounts $2,416,594 80 

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured, . 867 55 

Real estate 6,300 00 

U. S. Bonds on hand, . $1,001,650 00 
Other stocks, bonds and 

mortgages 1,250 00 

Due from National Banks 180,861 95 
Due from State Banks 

and bankers 118,38460 

Checks and other cash 

items 3,598 98 

Exchanges for clearing- 
house 29,684 50 

Bills of other banks, . . 186,054 00 

Specie 104,822 40 

Legal-tender notes, . . 460,000 00 -2,086,306 43 

Total $4,510,068 78 



LIABILITIES. 

Capital stock paid in $1,000,000 00 

Surplus, 100,000 00 

Undivided profits 78,422 63 

Individual deposits sub- 
ject to check, . . . $2,139,521 13 

Demand certificates of 
deposit 845,100 33 

Certified checks, . . . 17,621 34 

Cashier's checks out- 
standing 4,691 53 

Due to National Banks, 57.345 53 

Due to State Banks and 

bankers 267,366 24-3,331,646 15 

Total $4,510,068 78 




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INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA. U. S. A. 



153 



BANK OF COMMERCE. 

RESOURCES. 

Loans and discounts $370,950 37 

Other real estate 42,402 00 

Furniture and fixtures, 2,269 00 

Current expenses and taxes paid, . . 4,11701 

RESERVE. 

Checks and other cash 

items $14,734 81 

Due from reserve and 

other hanks, .... 81,603 ^^ 

Exchanges for clearing- 
house 

Paper currency, . . 

Silver 

Gold 



4,391 46 
89,443 00 
8,206 01 
2,o5,s 00— 200,433 94 



Total, 



$620,172 32 



LI.^BILITIES. 

Capital stock paid in $200,000 00 

Surplus fund 50,000 00 

Undivided profits, 16,156 97 

Due to other banks, . . $41,94694 

Individual deposits sub- 
ject to check, . . . 221,353 96 

Demand certificates of 
deposit 

Certified checks, . . . 

Cashier's checks out- 
standing, 



34.972 lo 
48,342 44 

7.399 9'— 354.015 35 



Total, $620,172 32 

STATE BANK OF INDIANA. 

The promoters of this bank, believing that 
the recent great expansion of the city's wealth 
and business would justify more extensive bank- 
ing facilities, have, within a few days, opened it 
for custom. It is organized under the laws of 
Indiana, with a paid up capital of $200,000. 
Although a late candidate for public favor, its 
connections are such that it is already recog- 
nized as one of the integral parts of the com- 
munitv's financial life. 



A stiinmary based tipon the preceding 
statements, shows that the resotirces and 
liabilities of all the banks in the city, 
set out in itemized form, are as follows: 



RESOURCES. 

Loans and discounts, 

Overdrafts 

U. S. Bonds . 

Stocks, securities, etc., 

Furniture and fixtures 

Real estate and mortgages, . . . 

Expenses and taxes paid 

Due from reserve agents, . . . . 
Due from other National Banks, 
Due from State Banks and bankers. 
Checks and other cash items, . . 
Exchanges for clearing-house. 

Bills of other banks, 

Fractional currency and coin. 

Specie, 

Legal tender notes, 

Paper currencj' 

Premiums on U. S. Bonds, . . . 
Redemption fund with U. S. Treas., 
Due from U. S. Treasurer, . . . 



Total, 



LL\BIL1TIES. 



fg, 2 29,468 94 

5,675 04 

1,777,650 00 

427,223 68 

39,072 00 

83.552 00 

15.836 58 

2,089,015 37 

401,875 10 

262,618 27 

44,950 61 

213,447 40 

665,404 00 

2,491 65 

2,605,704 71 

1 1 ,000 00 

13,500 00 

1.423 50 

$17,889,908 85 



Capital stock paid in, $2,800,000 00 

Surplus fund, 875,000 00 

Undivided profits, 336,275 31 

National Bank notes outstanding, . 265,700 00 

Individual deposits subject to check 7,525,961 44 

Demand certificates of deposit, . . 2,306,781 24 

Certified checks 87,739 13 

Cashier's checks outstanding, . . 104,462 97 

Due to other banks and bankers, . 3,168,411 99 

U. S. deposits 131,388 7° 

Deposits of U. S. disbursing officers 288,188 07 

Total 117,889,908 85 



154 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, V. S. A. 



From the above statistics may be too conservative, rather than otherwise. 

gained, not only a knowledge of the In the panics and threatened panics 

strength of the Indianapolis banks, bnt of the last few years, however, these 

an idea of the precautions which have methods have kept Indianapolis banks 

been taken to make and keep them firm as bed-rock, while financial institu- 

sound. In addition to the sworn state- tions in other cities have tottered, and 



msm^^^^ '■:^:A!J>!J>!fl!^' ' fe 'n' h !H' ^: ! ^ 




KoosKviiLT Block. 
ments of their officers as to their solidity, in many instances have fallen. It is 
it should be said that sterling business always best to keep well away from the 
methods are adhered to with unwavering danger line. Indianapolis bankers have 
tenacity. If any criticism of methods learned this, and are willing to leave 
were made, it would be that they are doubtful experimental methods to others. 



THE UNION STOCK YARDS. 




MBTBOUT twenty years ago a 
. // \'\ . company was organized 
to build and operate a 
Belt Railroad and Stock 
Yards in Indianapolis. 
.Work was pushed, and 
a few months later both enterprises were 
doing the service for which they were 
constructed. In a few j^ears the control 
of the Belt Road passed into other hands 
through a lease to the Union Railway. 
The original company still manages the 
Stock Yards. No more successful busi- 
ness concern exists in Indianapolis to-day 
than the Stock Yards have proven from 
their very beginning. The)' were put 
into operation just at a time when 
Indiana was beginning to a.ssume promi- 
nence as a live stock raising State, and 
instantly satisfied a demand, then grow- 
ing strong, for stock yard facilities more 
convenient!}' and cheaply accessible than 
those at Chicago or Cincinnati. 

The Indianapolis Stock Yards were 
located on the Belt Road, a position 
which gave them the advantage of direct 
connection with every railroad entering 
the city. At once the growing live .stock 
trade of the State was diverted from out- 
side cities to this, greatly to the benefit 
of the stock breeders and dealers through- 
out the vState, and the Stock Yards 
Company as well. As the business grew 
the facilities at the yards were extended 
and improved. vSheds and pens of the 
best character were erected. A hand- 



some and commodious hotel was built, 
with ample offices for the commission 
men doing business at the yards. Effici- 
ent telegraphic facilities were provided. 
In brief, all the equipment which should 
characterize the center of the live stock 
trade of a great stock producing region 
was put into the establishment. Thus 
encouraged, the volume of business has 
grown to enormous proportions. The 
annual receipts of stock for several years 
past have averaged about 2,000,000 hogs; 
100,000 head of cattle; 100,000 head of 
sheep, and several thousand horses. In 
order to accommodate this vast move- 
ment, the yards have been extended to 
include over one hundred acres of land. 
The permanent stock sheds containing 
the sorting pens, scales, etc., cover 
twelve acres. The business transactions 
at the yards amount to over $25,000,000 
every year. 

The establishment of the Stock Yards 
in Indianapolis has had a marked influ- 
ence upon the industry of live stock 
raising in Indiana and sections of adjoin- 
ing ' vStates. The agricultural zone, a 
hundred miles wide, which surrounds and 
is directly tributar>' to Indianapolis, is by 
nature especially adapted to the growing 
of fine stock. The climate is suitable, 
and the grasses and cereals most cheaply 
and bountifulh- produced are those on 
which stock thrives best. All that was 
necessary to develop this region into 
one of the greatest stock producing 



districts in the world, was a convenient, stead}- market. The location 
of the Stock Yards in Indianapolis provided that market, and ever 
since their establishment, the importance of the stock-raising indus- 
try in Indiana has steadily and rapidly increased. Not only has 
there been a great growth in the number of animals annuall}' 
raised and put upon the market, but there has been a note- 
worty improvement in the character of the stock. The 
old-time carlessness and indifference concerning 
quality of the animals raised for market has be 
succeeded by the most careful attention to strains 
of blood, protection for stock in winter, proper 
food and kindred matters. The result has 
been such as to encourage stock raisers to 
yet greater care. They have learned 
that an animal of improved blood, care- 
fully reared, will bring twice as / 
much money in market as one ',/ , 

of scrub stock which has growr 




up without attention. The 
recognition of this has 
been, in large degree, t 
brought about l)v the ' 

presence of a home 
market, to which 
the stock 



raisers have 
\ / easy and fre- 

quent access. Its 
proximity gives them 
a definiteness of knowl- 
edge of what the market 
^^ demands, shorn of the con- 

fusing complications of long 
distance transportation, and mis- 
understood methods of di.stant com- 
mission men. Farmers who, a number 
of years ago, sold their cattle or hogs 
in the fall to local shippers, knew that 
their profits were small, but little under- 
stood why. They credited the fact vaguely to 
cost of transportation, comuiissions to agents, 
etc. In that they were in part right. But now, 
having a market near home, their knowledge is 
greater. They are enabled to study the public demand 
and meet it ; the)' can promptly take advantage of the 
most favorable points in fluctuating prices ; they may definitely 
locate the causes of loss or diminution of profit, and thereafter 
avoid them. In these, and many other ways, the presence of the 
Stock Yards in Indianapolis has contributed to the prosperity and devel- 



158 



INDIANAPOLIS. INDIANA, U. S. A. 



opment of the live stock interests in the transactions of the Stock Yards, 

Indiana. In addition is to be noted the and a large number of men given 

benefit which has accrued to the city steady employment. In many directions 

from the vast commerce attracted by the the influence of the institution is per- 




Ji;\viSH SvNAi;i)c".ui;. 

establishment of a home market in its ceptible in the spreading of the city's 
borders. An immense sum of money is name as a live stock center and in the 
annually put into circulation through building up of its commerce and wealth. 



THE STREET RAILWAY SYSTEM. 




N her street railways, Indiana- 
polis has points of superiority 
I over any other American city. 
Her entire system belongs to a 
single compan)-, and there are 
none of those conflicts or incon- 
veniences which are invariable 
accompaniments of two or more systems 
of roads under different managements in 
the same city. Indianapolis, although 
presumably laid out with no thought of 
street-car conveniences, is yet peculiarly 
well adapted to an efficient and con- 
certed operation of street railway lines. 
The business part of the city is in 
the center, and the four great diago- 
nal avenues extending from the center 
toward the semi-cardinal points of the 
compass, constitute "short cuts" from 
the residence districts all round to the 
business portion, and vice versa. 

This plan of the city makes possible 
and simple the best system of transfers 
perhaps in existence anywhere. Every 
car on ever^^ trip runs from one side of 
the city through the center and to, or 
toward, the opposite side, and all cars 
pass a certain point on all trips, a 
transfer car or station being maintained 
at this common point of convergence. A 
map of the street-car lines of the city 
would sliow a series of roads radiating 
from the transfer car on Washington 
street in every direction, very much as 
the steam railwav lines radiate from 



Indianapolis. A passenger may take a 
street-car in any part of the city, ride to 
the transfer car, and there take any 
other car he maj' desire to any other 
part of the city, all with but a single 
pa^^meut of fare and a single change of 
cars. The arrangement by which every 
car in operation passes the stationarj- 
transfer car ou every trip which it 
makes, renders the transfer system an 
immense saving and convenience to the 
public. 

For long, the street-car facilities were 
not in keeping with the size and prog- 
ress of the city, but in the la.st two or 
three j-ears they ha\-e Ijeen extended 
and improved, and are now rapidh* be- 
coming first-class in every regard. The 
first street railroad in Indianapolis was 
built in 1864 on Illinois street. It was 
short and uneven, and its cars, drawn 
by diminutive nniles, ran at rare and 
irregular intervals. During the "boom" 
times in the early seventies, several 
other short lines were built, and growth 
went on slowly for years. In i.SSS, a 
number of outside capitalists combined 
and purchased the system for $1,085,000, 
and then an era of improvement began 
such as had never before been experi- 
enced in the city. Xew lines were built, 
old lines rebuilt and extended, new cars 
of the best pattern purchased, open 
summer cars put into service in large 
numbers, and finally, a beautiful park 



i6o 



IXDIAXAI'OLIS. IXniAXA, U. S. A. 



opened six miles north of the city and 
a superb electric line constructed to it 
by way of Crown Hill Cemetery. As 
the city had before had no popular 
amusement ground in the suburbs, Fair- 
view Park, as the new place was called, 
came into immediate and lasting favor. 
There had before been no rapid or satis- 
factory means of reaching Crown Hill, 
and the con.struction of the electric line 
had the effect of bringing the lovely 
place of the dead to the very gates of 
the cit\'. An English expert electrician 
who traveled all over the United States to 



vSince then, other roads have been 
converted into electric lines, and rapid 
transit is becoming a familiar fact. In 
a few years all the street railroads in 
the city will be operated by electricity. 
The system has grown until now three 
hundred cars are required to equip the 
eighty-five miles of tracks, and eight 
hundred men and a thousand hor.ses and 
mules are necessary to operate them. 
Ten huge barns are filled l)y the live 
stock and rolling stock. Whenever new 
tracks are laid down or old ones replaced, 
a steel rail weighing seventj' pounds to 




Station at F.\irvii:w 1'ark 
study the different electric street railway the _\ard is laid. The total distance 
systems, carried back to ("ireat Britain, traveled by all the cars amounts to 
and caused to be published, the report nearly eight thousand miles every day, 
that the electric line in Indianapolis was and in a year the total distance is 
the best that he saw in this country. almost three million miles. The com- 



INniANAI'OLIS, INDIANA. U. S. A. 



i6i 



pauy pays out about half a million rented at reasonable cost, and where 

dollars in wages every year, and a large there is plenty of room and fresh air, 

sum for supplies besides. The plant is and yet go to and from work in any 

one of the largest street railway systems quarter of the city cheaply and promptly, 

found in the great cities of America. This opportunity is taken advantage of 




Entrance to Armstrong P.\rk. 

One direct benefit of this admirable to a large degree, and in its way the 
system is that enjoyed by wage earners street railway system is an agency for 
and people receiving small salaries, keeping the poor from crowding to- 
They are enabled to live in the suburbs, gether in down-town blocks, in garrets 
where living expenses are comparatively and cellars, where di.sease and vice lie- 
small and homes can be purchased or in wait in their most dreaded foims. 






tt ft 




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Commi-;kciai, Ci.uh Hrii,i>iNG. 



THE SPIRIT OF IMPROVEMENT. 




J'BLIC spirit is like the 
wind: When it enters a 
city it breathes upon the 
whole body of the popula- 
tion. Its stimulus is not 
restricted to here and there 
a favored individual. For 
public .spirit to become an 
active, moving force in a comnumity, it 
must, in the nature of existing condi- 
tions, become manifest in the common 
mind. The causes which lead to a 
growth or decline of this spirit are not 
well understood. It is gradually and im- 
perceptibly infused into a community, 
or as mysteriously fades away, in either 
case being unheralded. Of one city we 
say its people are public spirited : of 
another, that the people lack public 
spirit. But we can not satisfactorily 
explain the reason for the condition 
which prevails in either place. Or we 
may note that in the same city an 
absence of public spirit at one time may 
be succeeded by a striking manifestation 
of it at another. In a general and cjual- 
ified way it may be said that a commu- 
nit}' which is prosperous and growing, 
is more likely than others to be char- 
acterized by this spirit, though it is pos- 
sible to invert the statement and say 
that the community in which public 
spirit prevails is likely to be growing 
and prosperous. 

There is this to be said, however, 
without qualification or reserve: That 



people which is most liberal of purse, 
most tolerant of custom or belief most 
careful of individual welfare, is also most 
thoroughly inspired with the spirit which 
strives for the promotion of the public 
weal. 

Indianapolis has not a record in this 
regard which is as good as could be 
desired. In past years she has seen 
younger and less advantageously located 
cities outstrip her. Her people have 
always had a reputation for steady pros- 
perity and contentment, but they have, 
perhaps, been too conservative. They 
have failed to appreciate the fact that 
there may be a liberality, an apparent 
freedom of expenditure, which, in the 
end, brings richer returns than an>' 
within the reach of strict conservatism. 
At first thought this may seem to have 
been a disadvantage, but further con- 
sideration will reverse the conclusion. 

In all the years of her stead}', un- 
ostentatious growth, Indianapolis has 
been laying broad and deep the foun- 
dations of future greatness. She has 
accomplished this b}- a thrift and econ- 
omy which have accumulated vast 
property and business interests free of 
debt. Her real estate values are actual, 
not fictitious. A larger per cent, of 
her citizens are property owners than 
is the case in any other city in the 
country. Here, then, is the foundation: 
A comnumity independent, well-to-do, 
composed of industrious members living 



164 



INDIANAPOLLS. INDIANA, V. S. A. 



in their own homes; vast mamifactur- class of residences and business blocks; 

ing establishments which have grown and for better government. This demand 

step bj- step from small beginnings, has been accompanied by a willingness 

each .step taken in response to impera- to assume the expense and inconven- 

tive demands for increased facilities ; ience incident to such improvements. 

an almost absolute freedom from foreign The results are to be seen in numerous 



debt on the part of in- 
dividuals and businesses ; 
a .system of railroads mak- 
ing the best center of di.s- 
tribution in the United 
States ; a surrounding ter- 
ritorj- rich in agricultural 
advantages, aud teeming 
with mineral wealth. 

Upon this foundation, 
slow of growth and solid 
as the everlasting hills, 
Indianapolis has now fair- 
ly begun to raise her 
superstructure of grace 
aud beauty. Public spirit 
breathed its inspiration 
into the souls of the 
people, aud already the 
effect is to be seen in 
many forms. The common 
desire to advance the 
city's interest has put a 
new .spirit into the Board 
of Trade, and has brought 
into being the Commercial 
Club, which has the public 
welfare as the sole justifi- 
cation for its existence. 




Crowning Figure Soldiers' 
Monument. 



instances. An era of street 
paving began three years 
ago. and is >et in the as- 
cendant. Miles of as])halt 
and lirick have been laid, 
and each season witnesses 
a growing sentiment in 
favor of more. A large 
part of the street railway 
sy.stcin has been converted 
from mule to electric 
power, and further changes 
will be made until, in a 
few >ears, the entire system 
will be electric, with rapid 
transit everywhere. Busi- 
ness blocks and residences, 
erected within two or 
three years, are in evidence 
to prove the more gener- 
ous ideas which at present 
prevail. Stone is taking 
the place of brick ; office 
l)uildings of great extent, 
and equipped with all the 
agencies of convenience 
and comfort, are taking 
the places of the ancient, 
inconvenient buildings 



The same impulse toward im])rovement which preceded them. A ne\V sj^stem of 

has been manifested in a demand for municipal government, containing all the 

better streets ; for more efficient and best features of the best city govern- 

adequate street car service; for a better ments in the country, with others in 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



165 



additiou, has been secured from the ness, are of a temper to persist in these 

State Legislature and put into successful laudable purposes until they are attained, 

operation. It is not intended that any city on the 

From the future, Indianapolis expects continent shall be more attractive or 

much. Her people, prosperous and progressive as a place either for residence 




Cn.\iR l".\cTORv (IX Big Foir Raii.ro.ad. 

happy, building up wealth year by year, or for commercial activity. All the fac- 

aud imbued with the spirit which takes tors for a symmetrical, rounded commu- 

a patriotic pride in beautifying the city nity of enlightenment and enterprise are 

and increasing its comforts and conven- present and are being daily woven into 

iences as a place of residence or busi- a fabric, strong, uniform and beautiful. 




OUR MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. 



ANY of the gravest problems 

in political economy which 

^_ , liave arisen in recent years 

©■ ^''t's have been those connected 



!J*' with the government of cities. 
The most earnest students of the age 
have applied themselves to the working 
out of a solution of these problems. 
Wherever a large population is crowded 
into a small territory, there is an inevita- 
ble tendency to vice and crime and cor- 
ruption in public office. The law experi- 
ences the greatest difficulty in ferreting 
out and punishing offenders. The same 
conditions which breed the evils that 
prey upon societ}- protect tho.se evils 
from the arm of the law. The massing 
of population not only multiplies the 
benefits to be obtained, but magnifies 
the ills. Every large city in the world 
has experienced the truth of this, and, 
in every city where enlightenment pre- 
vails, a constant study is carried on for 
the purpose of ascertaining how be.st to 
secure to the inhabitants the maximum 
of good and a minimum of bad. 

This effort has led to a trial of many 
different forms of municipal government. 
In the United States these experiments 
have ranged from utter failure to gratify- 
ing success. Something over two years 
ago, when it became conclusively evident 
that Indianapolis had outgrown her 
existing form of government, and the 
citizens, without regard to politics, en- 
t'.ied upon a movement to secure from 



the legislature a new charter, it was 
unanimously determined to embody in 
that Histrument the best features of the 
best systems of municipal government 
known. With that end in view, a com- 
mittee of eminent attorneys and business 
men, evenly divided politically, was ap- 
pointed to prepare a charter which 
should lack no detail of excellence. The 
committee spent months in studying the 
systems of government of other cities. 
It was found that Philadelphia and 
Brooklyn were among the best governed 
cities in the United States, and from 
them were borrowed many valuable 
features. To these were added such im- 
provements as experience and observa- 
tion recommended to the committee. 
When every point of practicable value 
had been incorporated in the instrument, 
it was presented to the legislature with 
a petition that it be enacted into a legal 
charter, which should become the basis 
for the future government of the city. 
The request was granted, and, in the 
spring of 1891, the old form of adminis- 
tration of public affairs was exchanged 
for the new charter. With the change 
the city made a long stride forward. 
The narrow restrictions under which it 
had groaned were cast off, and a new life, 
marked by progress and improvement, 
began. 

The charter, under which the city is 
now governed, centers the chief power 
and the greater part of the responsibility 




Hori-,1. I.Ni.i.i- 




t»l.Cini%NT \I, lloTKI.. 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



i6g 



ill the Mayor. In this \va\- the people 
are enabled to locate the blame for bad 
managemeut of affairs, or the credit for 
good, where it belongs. One of the 
weaknesses of the old form of city gov- 
ernment was the difficulty of locating 
the responsibility for any mismanagement 
or corruption in the conduct of public 
affairs. The Indianapolis charter lodges 
almost the entire administration of the 
municipal government in the hands of 
boards appointed by the Mayor. Over 
these boards the Mayor 
exerts the utmost author- 
ity. He may remove at 
will, without the formal- 
ity of announcing the 
cause for his action. 

The administration of 

affairs is divided into four 

departments, viz.: The 

Department of Finance, 

the Department of Public 

Works, the Department 

of Public Safety, and the 

Department of Public 

Health and Charities. 

The Department of F"i- 

nance is in charge of a 

Comptroller, and each of 

the other departments is 

presided over by a board 

of three members. The 

Comptroller and boards, 

as .stated above, hold office 

at the pleasure of the 

Mayor. In this way the 

Mayor, through his per- 
sonal representatives, car- 



ries on nearly all the functions of the 
local government, and is held directly ac- 
countable for their conduct. The Com- 
mon Council still exists, but its juris- 
diction is restricted, and the Mayor has 
the power of veto over its acts. 

The charter also invests the authori- 
ties with more power than they ever had 
before. They may compel the people to 
make public improvements where needed, 
over the protest and opposition of private 
or selfish interests. Sanitary and moral 




ERM.\N TKI,KGR.\PH" R(lII,ni.NO. 



170 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



restrictions may be made as comprehen- Tlie benefits of the charter are already 

sive and binding as necessarj' to pre- evident. The administration of public 

ser\-e the public healtli. and to guard and affairs has been placed upon a systematic 

maintain the moral welfare of the people. and business-like basis; street improve- 

The evil of the struggle for the spoils of ments of the finest and most durable 

office and the crimes against the .suffrage, character have been fairly begun, and 

which in all large cities grow out of it, will not be stopped until Indianapolis is 

where not specifically guarded against, as handsomely paved a city as there is 

have been, in great degree, prevented by in the country ; a magnificent sewer 

charter provisions which require the system, the result of extensive inve.s- 




Residence on E.^.st Washington STRf:i:T. 



police force and the members of the fire 
department to be chosen in equal 
number from at lea.st two political parties. 
Another of the valuable jirovisions of 
the charter gives the city government 
entire control over all places of anuise- 
inent or entertainment within five miles 
of the corporation limits. Through this 
jiower, the suburban resorts, which are 
certain to be maintained about the out- 
skirts of a city near enough to be with- 
in easy reach of the inhabitants, and yet 
outside the pale of the city's authority, 
may be effectually regulated. 



tigatiou and expert planing, has been 
agreed upon, work upon its construc- 
tion having been already begun ; and 
many other plans to enhance the welfare 
and beauty of the city have been put on 
foot, and will be carried into full effect 
as rapidl)' as possible. Under the benefi- 
cent operation of the new charter, sus- 
tained by a liberal and friendlj- public 
spirit, there is no doubt whatever that 
Indianapolis is entering upon an era of de- 
velopment which will win for her the rep- 
utation of being one of the most perfect- 
ly governed cities in the United vStates. 



SAVINGS AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS. 




CITY may be wealthy because carry dinner baskets, the classes which, 

of the great riches concen- in other cities, live in the tenements of 

trated in the hands of a few their rich neighbors, in Indianapolis go 

individual citizens, or through to their own homes when their hours of 

the sum of the common pros- employment are ended. The result of 

perity and thrift of the mass these enlightened and humane condi- 

of the population. For the tious is that there is in this city no 

welfare of the community and sharply drawn line between the rich and 

the wholesome equilibrium of public the poor, as there is in other communi- 

affairs, the second class of city wealth ties. All industrious, respectable people 

is unquestionably the more desirable, are more nearly on the same plane of 

Indianapolis is rich in this way. vShe societ}' than elsewhere. The money test 

has no citizens who, in other great cities, is not rigidly nor generally applied. 



would be account- 
ed very wealthy. 
Her people are 
almost completely 
devoid of any dis- 
play of riches. 
The splendor of 
liveried servants, 
and glittering 
carriages, and all 
the gorgeousne.ss 
and pomp which 
are the outward 
manifestation of 
wealth in other 
cities are wanting 
in Indianapolis. 




Intelligence and 
respectability are 
standards of eligi- 
bilit\' to good soci- 
ety which out- 
weigh all others. 
The rich and the 
middle classes live 
in the same sec- 
tions of the city, 
•"I and are neighbors 
on neighborly 
terms. 

This feature of 
general home 
owning is one that 



Bun.T ON THE ASSOCI.\TI0N PLAN. 

There are beautiful forcibly and favorably impresses the 

streets, lined with handsome homes, and stranger in the city. There are large 

the owners are worth their hundreds of sections where the streets are thickly 

thousands, but they do not indulge in lined on both sides with homes. Every 

vulgar display. On the other hand tlie place has a green, well kept lawn with 

wage earners, the men and women who plenty of yard for a breathirig space. 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



1/3 



Not one of the houses in the sec- 
tion, perhaps, will be distiuctively 
a fine mansion, and not one will be 
cheap looking or dilapidated. All 
will speak of plent\- and comfort 
and contenlnienl. These are the 
homes in which the people live, 
who, in other cities, are cooped in 
flats, apartment houses and rented 
tenements. The houses in which 
they live in Indianapolis are their 
own, and the good old word 
"home" applies to them in its best 
sense. On the poorest streets will 
be found hundreds of neat cottages, 




Bni.T ON THE Association ri,.\N. 



the property of the strong limbed men others it is. There must always be 

who go out from them daily to toil in beginners and unfortunates who can not 

the mills and shops and on the railroads. l)uy homes, and extravagant and shiftless 

Every cottage bears those marks of pro- folk who will not. But in Indianapolis 

prietorship, which, to the careful obser\'er, these, by their contrast, emphasize the 

tell of the owner's jiride, and of the fact happier condition without being numer- 

that his home is his stronghold. Cro to ous enough to obscure it. The per cent. 



any part of the cit\', away from the busi- 
ness districts, and the same conditions 
will be found to exist. The homes, be 
the)- small or large, Ijear outward indica- 
tions of the fact that the\' arc occupied 
by their owners. There is a neatness, a 



of the population which owns its homes 
is large and strong enough to dominate 
and give to the whole fabric of society 
in the community an air of solidity and 
stability as gratifying as it is rare. This 
liredominaiice of thrift sets the rule for 



state of repair about the fence and gate, the oncoming generation and makes the 

a freshness of the paint, an indescribable young man and young woman feel that 

something about the jilace in entirety, the ])ropcr thing, the expected thing, for 

which leave no doubt in the observer's them to do is to save money and become 

mind as to the jiroprietorship. proi)ert>- owners themselves. The right 

Naturall)- there are exceptions to this way becomes the customary way, and 

rule, according to which householders the common impulse of public opinion 

are house owners. vScattered among the and expectation is toward the betterment 

neat homes are to be found tenements of society. The influence of all this 

of many grades nf inferiorit\'. In some ui)oii the youth who are coming into 

portions of the city this is not true; in their elders' places is incalculable. It 



174 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



starts them rij^ht and gives a bent to 
their inclinations and habits of life which 
is permanent. 

The single agency which has done 
more than all other influences in making 
possible this general thrift, and in bring- 
ing it about, is the saving and loan as- 
sociation. It were hard to overestimate 
the benefit which associations of this 
kind have brought to Indianapolis. 
They have taken the poor man's petty 
savings, accumulated them little by little 
and returned them with generous accre- 
tions of interest. But their chief service 
has been in enabling wage earners to 
build homes and pay for them in such 
small payments as could be spared 
from their wages after the living expenses 
were deducted, monev which would have 



had to go for rent under other circum- 
stances. It has been said that money 
paid for rent is money thrown away, 
and in the view that there is no perma- 
nent return for money paid as rent, the 
saying is true. This is well illustrated 
in the operation of the savings and loan 
associations. The man who has paid a 
given amount for rent each month 
enters an association, builds a hou.se, 
and instead of paying rent pays about 
the same amount monthly into the asso- 
ciation. At the end of a few j^ears he 
finds him.self the owner in fee simple of 
a neat home, without a dollar of indebt- 
edness upon it, and without having 
made any perceptible sacrifices to secure 
it, and thereafter the money which he 
saves can be devoted to the accumula- 




WlNDSOK IIoTlvI.. 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



175 



tion of other property from which to 
derive an additional income. The num- 
ber of wage earners who have passed 
through this identical experience in In- 
dianapolis is most surprising to persons 
who have not become accustomed to it. 
The savings and loan, or building 
association idea primarily came to the 
United States from Germany, and se- 
cured its first permanent foothold on 
this side of the Atlantic in Philadelphia. 
There it was expanded and modified so 
as to be more in accordance with Amer- 
ican progress, and its benefits soon made 
it remarkably popular. From Phila- 
delphia a few Indianapolis gentlemen 
brought the idea West, and introduced 
it in this city about a quarter of a cen- 
tury ago, organizing a small association 
among themselves. That was the acorn 
from which the mighty oak of to-day 
has grown. 

In Indianapolis the principles under- 
lying the operation of the associations 
have received the profoundest investiga- 
tion. They have been studied in all 
their leadings just as insurance has. 
The result is a wonderful broadening of 
the benefits to be derived from member- 
ship in the associations. Profits are 
larger than of old; there are more elastic 
methods of securing to each member 
what he especially desires ; safeguards 
against speculation by officers have been 
adopted, and finally the cost of loans is 
very much lower than in the old-time 
associations. 

There is not a savings bank in Indi- 
anapolis for the simple reason that there 



is no demand for one. The savings and 
loan associations fill the place occupied 
by savings banks in other cities, and do 
much more besides. To depositors they 
pay higher profits than banks do, and 
they act as investment associations, and 
can afford to make more liberal loans 
on propel ty than banks can. This liber- 
ality in loans is not an indication of 
laxity in methods. It is based on sound 
business principles. The very month 
the loan is made, the borrower begins 
to repay it. Before the property has 
time to deteriorate, enough of the loan 
has been repaid to prevent the possibil- 
ity of loss, and while the borrower is 
paying interest on the whole sum bor- 
rowed, he has paid off a part of it, 
which being promptly loaned to another 
borrower, is again earning interest. 
Thus it is that while no single borrower 
is required to pay an exorbitant rate of 
interest on his loan, the fact that the 
mone}^ is turned over so often makes 
the total earnings of the associations very 
high. Each member of the association 
shares in the earnings according to the 
amount of stock which he holds. The 
result of this rather complex yet sound 
system is that an association member 
may borrow money amounting to three- 
fourths of the value of the property 
mortgaged to secure it, pay off the total 
debt and interest in small, easy pay- 
ments, and in the end, after deducting 
his share of the association earnings 
from the cost of his loan, find that he 
has only paid interest at the rate of 
about six per cent. 




Ci-KMAN Park AssoliaTIon L'l.i ii lIoiSK. 




(il-lK.MAN I'AKl-; ASSIILIAI'IDN I*A\ I l.li I.N. 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



177 



111 the light of these facts, it is no 
wonder the building association business 
has grown to vast proportions in Indi- 
anapolis. The wonder is that it has not 
become proportionally great in all the 
cities of the country. It offers oppor- 
tunities to the lender no less attractive 
than to the borrower. The 
wage earner who has paid 
for his home in the build- 
ing association rarely gives 
up his membership. He 
has too clearl)- learned its 
advantages. His common 
course is to promptly take 
out more shares of stock 
and continue his weekly or 
montlilj' payments, not with 
a view to borrow, but as an 
investment. In nearly every 
association there is a demand 
for more monej' than can be 
.supplied, and shareholders 
who paj' in but do not bor- 
row are a neccs.sary factor. 

Some general compre- 
hension of the enor- 




-mir^ 



mous extent to which 
the savings and loan 
association idea has 
taken hold upon In- 
dianapolis may be 
imparted by a resort to statistics. There 
are now in the city something over seven- 
tj'-five different associations. Their capi- 
talization ranges from $50,000 to $2,000,- 
000 each, averaging about $500,000, and 
the shares of stock range in paid-up value 
from one hundred to five hundred dol- 



VlRGIXI.\ .\VENI'E FOUNT.ilN 



lars, averaging about two hundred dollars 
each. The total capitalization of all the 
associations in the city is above $37,- 
000,000. The total number of shares of 
stock actually' carried at this writing is 
over 100,000. At the average value of 
two hundred dollars a share, this fixes 
the total value of building 
association stock now being 
carried in the citj' at over 
$20,000,000. The weekly 
payments, which are pro- 
portionately the same in all 
the associations, are at the 
rate of fift)' cents on each 
share of two hundred dollars. 
Carry the calculation a step 
farther, therefore, and it is 
seen that $50,000 is paid in- 
to the Indianapolis building 
associations every week, over 
$200,000 every month and 
$2,600,000 every year. Of 
this vast sum, fullj- $2,000,000 
goes into dwelling houses for 
the wage earners and the 
— small-salaried classes. 
'— Is it any wonder, 

-.;.._. theu, that Indianapo- 
SIIJ^.c^lis is called the "City 
~ of Homes?" And is 

it to be wondered at 
that the working classes of the city are 
unsurpassed in contentment and stability 
and prosperity by those of any com- 
munity on the globe? 

A word of praise is due to the man- 
agement of the associations. In all the 
years since the first was established in 



7-Hi- 



178 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



the city not one has failed or brought 
loss upon its members. The machinery 
of operation is eminently simple and in- 
expensive. The Secretary, in each case, 
is the chief and only salaried officer. 
He commonly receives in payment for 
his services from three to ten dollars a 
week, according to the amount of busi- 
ness to be done. The Directors meet 
in the evenings, once or twice a week, 
and the whole administration is carried 
on bv odd moments of attention. No 



tions may be operated for the greatest 
benefit of the members in the matter of 
liberal terms and large profits, but also 
that they maj^ be carried on with very 
slight expense. The good whicli the 
associations have done in Indianapolis is 
incalculable. It consists not alone in the 
great material prosperity which they have 
brought, but it extends far into the 
moral constitution of society. It is seen 
in habits of industry, in ideas of saving, 
in the decrease in vice and dissipation 










. j>?*. 




J-..1...- .. ... 



^d. 










*k.Jt~.- 



SrKi.ic.vi. I.NjiTi 1111. 



.1111(1 hiKMi-rr. 



person devotes his whole time to an which are accompaniments of extrava- 

association, as a rule, though, in the gance and improvidence, in a higher 

largest societies, there are a few excep- moral tone and in a general uplifting of 

tions to this. Experience and study have the community in all that makes toward 

sliown, not only how building associa- a better and happier existence. 



PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 




they large or small, few 
cities ill the United States 
possess more or finer pub- 
lic buildings than those in 
Indianapolis. As the cap- 
ital of the State the city 
has become the location of 
several large public institutions housed 
in buildings of vast extent and great 
beauty. Early in the history of the 
vState, while land in the suburbs of the 
infant capital was cheap, the authorities 
selected sites for the institutions, roomy 
and shaded by forest trees. The cost 
of the ground was small, but the growth 
of the city has been such that now the 
Spate's property is immensely valuable, 
and situated as it is, when the city has 
grown out to and around it, it adds to 
the beauty of the capital greatly with its 
shade and stretches of green sward, its 
flowers and fountains. 

Most beautiful of all the public 
buildings in the city and one of the 
finest in the United States is the Capitol. 
It stands in the center of a tract of 
about ten acres in the heart of the citj'. 
Its noble dome, rising two hundred and 
thirty-five feet into the air, with swell- 
ing curves and beauty of outline, is not 
surpa.ssed in the country. The great 
mass standing against the sky is so free 
from any suggestion of weight that it 
almost seems afloat. The Capitol is of 
stone, massive and solid. The e.xterior 



walls are of the famous oolitic stone 
from the Indiana field, and bear the 
warm gray tint and the appearance of 
.solidity which characterize that stone. 
Inside, the Capitol is noticeably free 
from the gilt and gaudy fret-work of 
plaster and other cheap materials which 
so aften lend an air of ostentatious vul- 
garity to the finish of public Iniildings. 
Everything which the eye rests upon is 
genuine. It is exactly what it seems to 
be. The style of fini.sh is massive and 
rather plain, but rich because of the 
materials employed. The roof and gal- 
leries are supported by rows and groups 
of immense marble pillars, and looking 
from the main floor of the great cor- 
ridor up to the sky-light, rows of sim- 
ilar pillars, one above another, are seen 
about the successive balconies. The 
stairways are marble, of various colors, 
and are triumphs of artistic design. Ex- 
acth- beneath the dome is the rotunda. 
Here the four vast piers which uphold 
the dome serve to enclose partly a circu- 
lar space about seventy-five feet in 
diameter. The piers are of oolitic stone, 
unadorned. About the rotunda on suita- 
ble pedestals stand Italian marble statues 
representing Art, Literature, History, 
Oratory, Commerce, Agriculture, Justice 
and Law. A hundred feet above the 
floor a dome of stained glass roofs the 
rotunda and floods it with rich, subdued 
light. The Iniilding is heated in winter 



I So 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



and cooled iu summer by a sj-stem of into the State treasur_v when the Capitol 
steam fans in the basement. Tlie fans was completed. Such a thing was rare- 
incidentally ventilate the structure thor- ly if ever heard of before in the history 
oughly. In winter of this country. The result of the hon- 
the air is blown esty and wise judgment of the commis- 
sion which had control of the building 
operations, and of the contractors who 
did the work, is that Indiana to-day has 
a Capitol of noble and dignified propor- 
tions. It is proven by tlie testimony of 
travelers and architects that this build- 
ing is finer and handsomer than capitols in 
other States which cost a great deal more. 



across huge coils of 
heated steam pipes 
and in that way 




warmed before reaching the upper floors. 
Extravagance and corruption in the 
erection of public liuildings are so near- 
ly universal that they have become 
proverbial. The building of the Indiana 
Capitol furnishes a notable exception to 
the rule. It is a monument to the hon- 
esty and economy of its builders. The 
State Legislature appropriated $2,000,000 
for the purpose of building a Capitol. 
To the surprise and gratificatiou of the 
public, nearly twenty thousand dollars of 
the fund remained and was turned back 




INDIANAPOLIvS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



181 



The largest single iu.stitiilioii which 
Indiana possesses is the Central Hospital 
for the Insane, located in the western 
subnrbs of Indianapolis. Its site is a 
rolling tract of native woodland, spa- 
cious and beautiful. The natural at- 
tractions of the place are heightened by 
the art of the architect and landscape 
gardener. This institution is a complete 
comnuinit}- in itself It has the popula- 
tion of a small city, and is as independ- 
ent as a city in the matter of its food, 
heat, light, society, entertainment and 



huge central battery of boilers. The 
ho.spital is an instructive and interesting 
place to the visitor. All the most ap- 
proved methods of treating the insane 
are in use. As far as possible the pub- 
lic is kept informed of the workings of 
the institution, and everything is carried 
on according to the most humane and 
enlightened ideas. 

One of the cardinal doctrines of the 
management of the hospital is that 
dementia may be relieved, often perma- 
nently, by keeping the thoughts of the 




Residence on North Meridian Street. 

religious services. The hospital usually patients employed in a manner to divert 

contains about sixteen hundred patients them from their mania. In the practice 

with near four hundred attendants and of this remedy the hospital is made a 

other employes. A large electric light- cheerful, lively place, and much time 

ing station is on the grounds, and the and ingenuity are given to preparing 

two main buildings are heated from a and carrying out plans for tlie amuse- 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



■83 



ment and diversion of the patients. The 
unfortunates are also provided with the 
means of employing their hands when 
they so desire, and annually they pro- 
duce large quantities of lace, crochet 
work, etc. Some write, some draw, and 
each individual is allowed the especial 
dA'ersion which he enjoys. Because of 
the methods which prevail in this insti- 
tution it is not the solemn, tomb-like 
place which manj' hospitals for the in- 
sane are. 

The buildings and grounds of the 
Central Hospital are well worth a visit, 
aside from the interest which attaches to 
a place where broken and ruined minds 
are assembled and cared for. There are 
two enormous buildings, one for men, 
the other for women. They are l)rick, 
and for purposes of light and ventilation 
each are arranged in the form of con- 
nected wings with man>- angles, and 
above are finished with numerous tall 
brick towers. The hospital, with its 
grounds, is worth $1,800,000. From a 
distance the clustered towers rising 
above the trees present a striking ap- 
appearance. On a green hill at one side 
of the grounds is a small well-kept cem- 
eterv, where lie the remains of man\' 
patients who are still, as in life, the wards 
of the State. 

On the eastern edge of the city, in a 
beautiful grove of tall forest trees, is the 
State School for the Deaf It consists 
of two large buildings ; one of gray 
stone, four stories high, with an impos- 
ing entrance, flanked by stately fluted 
pillars of a style once popular and now. 



unfortunately, rare ; the other, a modern 
brick building of the same height. 
There are, besides, shops, a bakery, and 
other separate buildings. The grounds 
consist of many acres, part of which is 
used for agricultural purpo.ses. The 
campus about the buildings is laid out 
in lawns and shaded walks, while the 
gray and red walls of the school appear 
cool and inviting through the vistas of 
trees. The property is estimated to be 
worth over half a million of dollars. 

The most successful methods of in- 
struction are employed in this institu- 
tion. Besides the sign language, pupils 
are taught to read the lips of persons 
speaking, and to use their voices in 
speech. A boy or girl, at home referred 
to as "deaf and dumb," may often be 
taught to understand the movements of 
the lips of one speaking, and to reply in 
a well modulated voice, so as to carry 
on a convensation in a manner hardh- 
different, apparently, from the dialogue 
of two persons possessing all the ordi- 
nary faculties. At the last commence- 
ment exercises of the school, several 
pupils delivered graduating speeches or 
read papers from the stage in a man- 
ner so rational and easy that the hearer 
for the moment almost forgot the 
character of the institution. Considera- 
ble original investigation has been made 
by the authorities of the school in the 
line of assisting hearing where the power 
to hear some sounds is still weakly 
present. Studies of the conditions 
which produce deafness and the hered- 
itary phases of the affliction have also 



been carried on in the schuol with gratifying success. The 
State Institution for the Blind is also located in Indiana])o- 
lis. It is in the north central part of the city, in the 
niidst of the most attractive residence district. Its 
fine old trees and grounds, with winding walks and 
handsome flower beds, add much to the beauty of 
the neighborhood. The main building of the 
school, like that of the institution for the 
deaf, is of a stately style of architecture 
which wears the dignity of other days, 
and is in striking contrast to the 
modern and ephemeral, though more 
ostentatious, buildings around it. 
In the eastern part of the cit}', 
and not far from the school 
for the deaf, is the Girls' Re- 
formatory and Women's 
Prison. This institu- 
tion has brought to 
Indiana a reputa- 
tion for advanc 
ed ideas in the 
h u ni a n e 




treatment 
of female of- 
fenders. Hardly 
another State in 
the Union has made 
so liberal and wise a 
*'*' provision for them. The 
reformatory and prison, 



though under the same roof 
and management, are entirely 
distinct from each other. There 
is no association or contact between 
the young girls in the reformatory 
and the hardened criminals in the prison. 
\ ^/ The institution was established solely for 

women and girls, and is under the control of 
a board of woman managers. The superintend- 
.', V 1^ ^"'- '^ ^ woman, and all the officers and attendants 
; are women. No female criminals are sent to the 

penitentiaries. In their prison, milder discipline pre- 
\ails : the work provided is of a kind suited to them ; 
and there is not the gloom and cheerlessness which often 
characterizes prisons. Students of penology and philanthro- 



INDIAXAl'DLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



1S5 



pists have come lumdreds of miles to 
visit this Indiauapolis institution, which 
is everywhere regarded as a model of 
its kind. 

The building in which the reforma- 
tory and prison are quartered is of 
brick with stone finishings, and is con- 
structed according to a rather handsome 
design. It stands on a tract of high 
ground, but has not the surroundings 
of large forest trees which add so much 
to the attractiveness of other State insti- 
tutions in the city. The property of 



House. After the State House, the 
Court House is the most striking archi- 
tectural feature of the capital. It is of 
Indiana oolitic stone, and has the mass- 
ive, strong appearance which that stone 
so well imparts. The building is of dig- 
nified design, and though of great size, 
is saved from the monotony which large 
structures often present to the eye, by 
well-executed variations in outline, and 
the employment of projecting buttresses, 
polished granite columns and the like. 
The interior of the Court House does 




I'KiKxus' Church. 

the reformatorj' and prison is worth not quite fulfill the expectations which 

about $200,000. the exterior arouses, though it is costly 

One of the most imposing structures and well arranged. Its stairways, es- 

iu the city is the Marion County Court pecially, are noteworthy features of the 



i86 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. vS. A. 



interior. The building cost, when 
ed a dozen years or more ago, 
one and a half million of dollars 
ground upon which it 
stands, if put on the 
market to-day, would pro- 
bably sell for not less 
than one million dollars. 
No single object attracts 
more interest in Indian- 
apolis than the monument 
erected by the vState in 
honor of the soldiers who 
went out from Indiana to 
fight for their country. 
No other State in the 
Union has honored its 
loyal sons with .so noble 
a memorial as this. It 
stands in the center of 
Circle Park, the park 
which, in the original 
design of the founders of 
the capital, occupied the 
exact center of the citv. 



erect- top of the slender shaft stands a colossal 
about bronze figure holding aloft the torch of 
The progress in one hand and with the oth- 
er grasping a sword 
with its point turned to 
the earth in token of 
ended strife. The statue 
represents Indiana tri- 
umphant in battle, return- 
ing to the pursuits of peace. 
Work upon the monu- 
ment is still in progress. 
When it is complete, mag- 
nificent groups of bronze 
statuary, representing 
War and Peace, will 
adorn the east and west 
faces of the pedestal. 
Bronze a.stragals encircle 
the shaft of the monu- 
ment. One represents the 
army, another the aavy, 
a third contains the dates 
of the Mexican and Civil 
wars. It is intended to 




*,:■;- '-,f ""^fJ 




Of solid, gray stone, the monument rises, make this the grandest soldiers' mouu- 

beautiful in its proportions, to a height ment on the globe. 

of two hundred and eighty feet. On the The niu\ement in favor of the 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



187 



building of a monument to the citizen the legislature convened in 1887 a bill 

soldiery of the State originated about was introduced appropriating $200,000 

twenty years ago. An effort was made for the erection of a soldiers' monument 

soon after to collect sufficient funds by in Circle Park, and became a law with 

popular subscription, but it was not per- little opposition. Soon after, active op- 




RiisiDRNCE ON North 

sisted in, and was given up when about 
$21,000 was in hand. After that, the 
project lay dormant several years. 
When it was next revived it met with 
more pronounced favor, and its advocates 
determined to ask the legislature to ap- 
propriate money to assist in carrying it 
through. In the beginning, the mo.st 
enthusiastic friends of the movement had 
not dreamed of such a monument as 
was finally decided upon, but as senti- 
ment increa.sed in favor of their plan 
their hopes and ambitions grew. When 



Dei,.\wark Strekt. 

erations began, the work being placed 
in control of a commission provided for 
in the legislative act which appropriated 
the money. 

From that time the con.struction of 
the great memorial has gone steadily on. 
Progress has been slow because only by 
deliberation, and the careful considera- 
tion of every detail, can a truly noble 
and dignified work of art be achieved. 
The best living artists have contributed 
to the success of the undertaking. De- 
signs and models have come from 




St. Vincp:nt's Hospitai,. 




1-KMAI.I-; Rlil-URMATllUV. 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



189 



famous sculptors and architects in Ger- 
many, France, England, and different 
parts of the United States. The very 
best that art can offer has been secured 
for this great work. The expense of 
this has been beyond all previous cal- 
culations. The appropriation of $200,- 
000 was found not nearly sufficient, 
though the $21,000 of the original fund 
was added to it, and the expenses of 
the commission came from the State 
treasury. Again the legislature was ap- 
pealed to, and in the winter of 1890-91 
an additional appropriation of $100,000 
was made. It is yet uncertain whether 
even this sum will suffice to finish the 
monument. If it does, the total cost 
will be about $350,000. It is the pur- 
pose of those mo.st closely associated 
with the construction of the memorial 
to have it conform to the highest can- 
ons of art, and to make it an unanswer- 
able refutation of the idea that the West 
does not know and appreciate the best 
in artistic expression. 

Tomlinson Hall is a public building 
of which any city might well be proud. 
When Stephen D. Tomlinson died, ten 
years ago or more, he left an estate of 
$150,000 in trust to the city, for the 
erection of a great assembly hall to be- 
long to the municipality. To this sum 
the city added about as much more, 
and built Tomlinson Hall. The building 
is of immense proportions, and of a 
style of architecture which preserves it 
against the barn-like appearance which 
is often noticed as almost characteristic 
of buildings erected solely to accommo- 



date large crowds. The lower floor of 
the structure is a vast market space, 
open on two sides in summer and closed 
in winter, and divided into innumerable 
stalls. The main entrance to the build- 
ing leads into a large corridor or vesti- 
bule, from which two wide stairways 
ascend to the vestibule of the assembly 
room on the second floor. 

The hall, where many great crowds 
have gathered, is perfect for the purpo.se 
for which it was erected. There is 
nothing cheap or temporary about it. 
The walls are hand.somely frescoed. The 
hard-wood floor is smooth and almost 
polished. The ceiling, fifty feet above, 
is of yellow pine fini.shed in natural 
colors, its vast expanse broken by mass- 
ive cros.s-beams intersecting each other 
at right angles. Around three sides of 
the hall runs a wide balcony. Across 
the end farthest from the stage is a 
second balcony or gallery, above the 
first. In this hall have been held nation- 
al political conventions, state conven- 
tions, great mass meetings, the famous 
May Music Festivals, and many other 
kinds of assemblies. The stage alone 
has a seating capacity of five hundred. 
The hall entire has been known to ac- 
commodate assemblies of five thousand 
persons. As a meeting place accessible 
to the public, belonging to the public 
in fact, this great gathering place has 
been of incalculable value to the com- 
munity. 

The Public Library building is 
purely Grecian in its architecture, classic 
lines being strictly adhered to through- 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA. U. S. A. 



igi 



out. It occupies an excellent location, 
being near the heart of the city, and at 
the same time far enough away from 
the noise and confusion of traffic to 
allow the place quiet surroundings. The 
■building is not only handsome ; it is 
convenient as well. The books are easy 
of access and in good light, and are so 
compactly stored as to require a mini- 
mum of space, and of distance to be 
gone over by attendants in waiting upon 
patrons. The system of cataloguing in 
use is one approved and practiced in 
the greatest libraries in the country. 
At the present rate of increase, the 
institution will contain 100,000 volumes 
in a few years more. The library build- 
ing, with the ground on which it stands, 
is worth about $200,000. 

The building of the Young Men's 
Christian Association is another of the 
handsome structures of the city. It is 
of rough stone laid in massive blocks. 
The front of the first floor is devoted 
to business rooms, with the exception of 
a broad entrance, spanned by a low mass- 
ive arch of stone, which leads to the 
-Stairway. The rear of the first floor is 
occupied by the gymnasium. The sec- 
ond floor of the building is occupied by 
the offices, reading rooms, amusement 
rooms, parlors, and chief audience room 
of the association. The third floor con- 
tains a number of class rooms, used b>- 
the free night classes carried on for the 
members during the winter. In con- 
junction with the gymnasium are spa- 
cious bath rooms. The a.ssociation has 
thus provided an attractive gathering- 



place for young men who are down 
town during the day or evening ; a 
place where they may read, or talk, or 
play games, or study, or develop their 
muscles. The building is situated in the 
business center of the city, where its 
conveniences are most readily accessible. 
The membership of the association is 
about twelve hundred, and its property, 
which is clear of debt, is worth $100,- 
000 or more. 

The Propykcum is an institution pe- 
culiar to Indianapolis. The Iniilding 
which bears the name is the property of 
an association of women. The idea of 
erecting a handsome structure to be 
used for important social events; art 
exhibitions ; as a meeting place for lit- 
erary, social and scientific clubs, and 
any other functions not inconsistent with 
these, originated with certain prominent 
women of the city, and was no sooner 
conceived than a definite plan was 
formed and efforts were made to put 
it into effect. A stock company was or- 
ganized and subscriptions invited. Only 
women were allowed to take stock. The 
capital needed was $20,000, and in a 
short time every dollar was subscribed. 
A large lot was purchased in a choice 
location, and the Propylaeum built. 
The structure is of rough stone, three 
stories high, and of handsome design. 
The interior is finished in quartered 
oak. About the entire place is an air of 
elegance and refinement. The business 
judgment of the originators of the Prop}-- 
lanim enterprise has been confirmed by 
the history of the institutiun since it 




Military Park Ldhkinc Toward thk State Housk. 




Military 1'akk Ai.<inc. thi': Canai.. 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



193 



was opened to the public. The place 
has been in permanent and constant de- 
mand for the purposes for which it was 
intended. It has paid a good per cent, 
upon the investment, and the capital 
stock has been increased. As the prop- 
erty stands to-day, it is probably worth 
$30,000. 

Of brick and stone and four stories 
in height, the Chamber of Commerce is 
a structure of attractive and substantial 
appearance. It is the headquarters of 



place is one of the busiest in the city, 
and the transactions carried on beneath 
its roof amount to millions of dollars 
every year. The Chamber of Commerce 
is worth about $75,000. 

Of her Union Railway Station, Indi- 
anapolis is especially proud. The Union 
Railway Company, several years ago, 
determined to build a union station 
which should be a credit to the " Rail- 
road Cit3^" Because all the sixteen rail- 
roads entering the city, centered in one 




the Board of Trade, and the place is, be- 
sides, the center of the grain business of 
the city. Grain dealers have offices in the 
l)uilding, as have the elevator companies, 
and brokers are there in number. The 



Residence on P.\rk .\venue. 

station, this was the more desirable. 
Many months were spent in acquiring 
the necessary ground and franchises from 
the city and in preparing plans for the 
station. Every thing was done in the 




Laddkr WriKKS i)N liu; l-di K Rau.kuah 




I III ri;N\^\ i,\ \\ I \ > I Ki 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



195 



best way, and only the best materials 
were employed. When the work was 
completed, and the great building and 
train sheds were finished, those who had 
seen the progress from beginning to end 
knew that an immense enterprise had 
been carried to an honest and high class 
consummation. i\.n institution had been 



ing with the remainder of the building. 
The interior of the station is as striking 
and handsome as the exterior. The 
main waiting room is a vast hall of un- 
usual beaut}'. Its ceiling is an arch 
spanning the entire width of the room, 
which is fifty feet, and from the floor to 
the center of the arch is sixtv-five feet. 




Rksidkxce on NdI^ 

added to the city which would be credit- 
able to it no matter how much the com- 
munity may increase in population and 
wealth in years to come. 

The main building of the station is 
of granite and pressed brick. The main 
entrance is beneath a massive arch, and 
the building is as strong and durable as 
a Norman castle. On one corner ri.ses a 
square, stately tower of dignity in keep- 



rii ?iIi:riiii \x S tkij't. 

An ornamental gallery extends entirely 
around, the room at a height of about 
twenty-five feet. The room is lighted by 
a huge stained glass sky light in the ceil- 
ing, and by an immense circular window 
of .stained glass at each end. Connected 
with the main waiting room is a smoking 
room ; a second large waiting room where 
there is somewhat more of privacy than 
in the main room ; a hand.some waiting 



i 



three hundred feet wide. Light 
enters at the open sides and 
through the large sky-lights. 
The roof of the shed connects 
with one side of the main build- 
ing of the station, so that in 
passing from the trains to the 
waiting rooms there is no ex- 




room devoted exclusively to 
ladies' use ; a dining room : 
a barber shop : a check room : 
a news stand : a telegraph 
office; a ticket office, and 
several toilet and retiring 
rooms. An elevator -and 
stair\va\-s lead to the three 
upper floors of the building, 
where are situated a large 
number of railway offices. 
The trains, on reaching the 
station, stand under a vast 
roof .supported on iron pil- 
lars. The shed is over seven 
hundred feet long and over 



l''ikK I'l.Nc.iM-; ll(U>.i;^. 



INDIAXAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



197 



posure to the weather. George B. 
Roberts, President of the Pennsylvania 
system of raih'oads, is authorilx- tor the 
statement that tlie Indianapolis Union 
Station is the finest and most complete 
railway depot in the I'nited States. The 
station cost, in ronnd numbers, $1,000,000. 
The new club house of the Com- 
mercial Club is one of the most im- 
posing buildings in the city. It is of 
Indiana stone, laid rough in the first 
two .stories and dressed above. Its total 
height is eight stories. The first six 
stories are used for business rooms and 
offices. The seventh floor is occupied 
by the club, and the eighth by a large, 
first-class cafe. The club (jnarters are 
equipped with all that is necessary to 




comfort and attractiveness. There is a 
private cafe, assembly room, billiard 
room, i)arlors, the offices of the pres- 
ident and secretar>-, etc. The building 
is equipped with two rapid elevators ; 
spacious stairways; a fire-proof vault on 
every floor; is heated by steam and 
lighted by electricity. It is, in fact, as 
handsome and complete an office and 
club building as is to be found any- 
where. The property is worth about 
$200,000. 

The home of the Columbia Club 
should be mentioned before leaving the 
subject of club houses. This club limits 
its membership to Republicans. It was 
formed four years ago, and soon grew 
strong enough to purchase a handsome 
property on Circle .street, in the shadow 
of the Soldiers' Monument. Since then 
it has made extensive changes and en- 
largements in the building, and has fur- 
nished it in the most luxurious style. 
The club house and grounds are worth 
about $50,000. 

Indianapolis has two large hospitals, 
both of which are creditable to her 
charity and humanity. Both are free, 
and their doors are always open to the 
sick or injured of every station in life. 
The.se institutions are the City Hospital 
and St. Vincent's. The former is main- 
tained b>- the cit>-. It is a vast, roomy 
building, occupying shaded grounds 
where convalescent patients may sit on 
rustic benches under the trees, or walk 
on the .soft grass. A superintendent, 
with a corps of assistant phj-sicians, i.s 
in charge of the place. An ambulance 



Rhodius Block. 



198 



IXDIAXAPOLIS, IXDIAXA, U. S. A. 



is al\va\-s ready to instantly respond to care and medical attention at home, is 

calls for help from any section of the received at St. Vincent's withont ques- 

city. Trained nurses, in their quiet cos- tion as to his religious belief. Some of 

tunies, flit about the wards caring for the best physicians and surgeons in the 

the sufferers, and spotless cleanliness is city compose its staff, and the sisters, 




hiii,ini;Ks i,R\\i;s IN' 

everywhere. The hospital has a capacity 
to care for over one hundred patients at 
the same time. 

vSt. \'incent's Hospital is one of the 
noble charities for which the Roman 
Catholic church has become celebrated 
all over the world. It is in the care of 
one of the orders of sisters of that 
church. But while it is an institution 
of the Catholic church, it is not sec- 
tarian in its charities. Any unfortunate, 
hurt by accident, or who falls sick upon 
the street, or who can not have proper 



Crowx Hii.i. Ci;mi;ti;rv. 

with their gentle, quiet ways and 
trained hands, make ideal nurses. The 
hospital is a beautiful building of brick, 
finished inside in simple elegance. The 
floors of hard wood are kept polished 
like mirrors, and no furniture is used 
in which dust or disease germs could 
find lodgment. A large number of 
patients share in St. \'incent's hospitality 
and generosity. 

There are numerous other public in- 
stitutions in the city, and all in com- 
fortable and often handsome homes. 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



199 



There is the Indianapolis Orphan Asy- 
lum ; the German Orphans' Home ; the 
Colored Orphan Asylum ; the Home for 
Aged Colored Women : the Home for 
Friendless Women; the Katharine Home 
for Aged Women ; the Home of the 
Good Shepherd, for friendless girls ; the 
Home for the Aged, in connection with 
vSt. Joseph's Catholic Church, etc. The 
Indianapolis Orphan Asylum, the Ger- 
man Orphans' Home and the Home of 
the Good Shepherd, in particular, are 
fine buildings of pleasing architecture. 



Indianapolis is not behind her sister 
cities either, in the matter of statuar)-. 
In Circle Park, at the base of the 
Soldiers' Monument, is a fine bronze 
statue of Oliver P. Morton, Indiana's 
statesman and famous War Governor. It 
was erected from a fund raised by sub- 
scription among the friends and admirers 
of the great man. To Morton, more 
than to any other man, Indiana owes 
her brilliant record in the Civil War. 

Another of Indiana's sons who has 
been honored by a statue in the capital 




Residence on North Tennessee Street. 
The first named is especially beautiful, is Thomas A. Hendricks. His long and 
and, with its large, park-like grounds, it honorable career in the national legisla- 
forms an exceedingly attractive spot in ture. and his death while \'ice-President 
the northeastern part of the cit\-. of the United States, form an integral 




KNIGHT.S Ol' rvTHlAS' CASXI.K. 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. vS. A. 



20 1 



part of the history of tht- Unitt-d .States. 
The Hendricks Monument stands in the 
State House grounds, and is a bronze 
effigy of heroic size, upon a pedestal of 
granite. 

Schuyler Colfax, too, another of Indi- 
ana's statesmen, has been honored by a 



the Iieart of the city are objects of inter- 
est. The wide, straight streets, bordered 
with trees and lawns, give the residence 
districts a park-like appearance. This is 
heightened by an absence of fences and 
the large sized yards which prevail. 
Passing along the streets, made thus at- 




In University r.\RK. 

bronze statue. It stands in University tractive and lined with comfortable 

Park, one of the mo.st attractive spots homes, one comes upon beautiful 

in the city. churches; school houses of modern stj'le; 

The truth is that Indianapolis, in public institutions, embowered in trees, 

point of the number and beauty of its One thing of interest crowds upon au- 

public buildings and memorials, is in other, and the stranger in the city who 

advance of almost any city of its size sees it as he should, will depart well 

in the country. In every direction from repaid for the time which he has spent. 



iraNTOityEMM 






Uht ]fuhmnnfXili0 §mimtL 



ESTABUSHED I82L 



■jaSta SOSKIXC onOBER 2j. 1692. 



PRICE PIVE CEMT3. 



+ + + THE *-T-r 



nii[PMiofotRTti:^=:fri::::: 



GREAT FIRE SALE 
Dam8 

IS SI! 



Hangs Over tho White 
Hou^a ol Wnstiinciori. 



m PEOPLE'S misisifi 



Packed wil 
open in the me 
story, and suci 
offered. Toda 
1,000 Cassimeri 
Overcoats upon 
the sale. Thed: 
and what vou g 




LIBRARIES AND LITERARY CLUBS. 




^HE value to an enlightened Children growing up must inherit and 
comniunit>-, of libraries absorb right inclinations and habits from 
and a literarj- atmosphere parents who, in turn, had grown up 



may not be reckoned in 
dollars and cents. It is 
manifested in ways un- 
mistakable but not to 
be measured by material 
standards. The cultivation of a lo\-e for 
reading ; of an acquaintance, through 



amid influences of the proper kind. The 
surroundings and tendencies of the com- 
munity, when the child is outside his 
home, must also be favorable. Progress 
nuist Ije slow, constant and unflagging. 
But whatever the difficulties and obstacles, 
and whatever the cost, the ends are 



their writings, with the great minds of worth a thousand times the effort re- 
the world ; of an understanding of the quired to attain them, 
motives and deeds of great men ; of a This process of cultivation has been 

knowledge of the mighty proce,sses by slowly going on in Indianapolis for many 
which a marvelous civilization has been years. Long ago its benefits began to 
wrought, while the centuries have come be seen. To-day tliey are incalculable 
and gone like the hours of an 
April day, brightened and dark- ^gS^ 

ened by sun and cloud : tliese^ 
things must broaden and ele- /-^ 
vate the thought and interest 
of .society, and be seen and 
felt ill the character of its in- 
clinations, its purposes, its 
standards of excellence, its 
amusements, in all the breadth 
and depth of its inward self __- 
and outward expression. Ijlj' 

The inculcation of that love \\. 
for reading and stud>-, which 
will lead to results so desira- 
ble, can not be brought about 
in a short time. Years of gen- 
erous opportunity and constant 
encouragement are necessary. ^£Ki 








^ '^^wk 




"^Sm 


g|L^' 




^^ 




( 


ML ^ ^^^^^1 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA. U. S. A. 



205 



but the many agencies at work, with 
constautly accumulating momentum, are 
steadily adding to their value. The ex- 
pression of the progress made, in turn 
becomes the strongest influence toward 
further progress. The form which this 
expression has taken in Indianapolis has 
been especially that of libraries and 
literary clubs. It is doubtful whether 
any city of its class in the Union equals 
this in the number and size of its libra- 
ries and in the number and average 
standard of its literary clubs. 

The principal library in the city is 
the Public Library. In 1872 an associ- 
ation of gentlemen presented a well 
selected library of ten thousand volumes 
to the city, upon the city's agreement 
to maintain and add to it, and to make 
it absolutely free to all the citizens of 
Indianapolis. The institution was put 
into the control of the Board of School 
Commissioners, and a small tax was 
levied for its maintenance and to pur- 
chase new books. Ever since that time, 
the Public Library has been a powerful 
agency for good. It has grown until 
there are now over fifty thousand vol- 
umes upon its shelves, and aniuuil addi- 
tions amount to about five thousand vol- 
umes. Many rare and costly editions of 
famous books have been secured, and 
many valuable manuscripts. The pur- 
chase of books has been always in pur- 
suance of some definite plan, and the 
result is that there are exceedingly full 
collections of works upon all the great 
divisions of literature. The wants of all 
classes of readers have been consulted. 



and no matter what his line of reading 
or study may be, the patron of the library 
may find books to his taste. In fiction, 
it should be said, care is observed in 
selecting only standard works, and an 
effort is made to provide books which 
will at once attract and improve young 
readers. Connected with the Public Li- 
brary is a reading room, open every day 
and evening, where may be found all 
the leading journals, magazines and re- 
views, with many of the more important 
daily papers, and where any book in the 
library may be used. Much the greater 
number of books read, hovever, is bor- 
rowed and carried to the homes of the 
readers. Any book may be borrowed 
and retained two weeks, and at the end 
of that time renewed and kept two 
weeks more, if desired. In the beautiful 
and spacious new building which has 
been erected for the library, and with 
the increased revenues which have lately 
come to it, it is destined to become, 
nuich more than ever before a power- 
ful influence for good in the community. 
The Indiana vState Library is next to 
the Public Library in importance. It 
was created by act of the General A.s- 
sembly in 1825, and, until recently, has 
grown slowly since that time. To-day 
it contains near twenty-five thousand 
volumes. It is especially rich in histor- 
ical works, and contains some exceed- 
ingly rare books and maps. Its col- 
lection of historical works is one of the 
most complete and valuable in the West. 
Within a few years a greater allow- 
ance for the .support and upbuilding 



2o6 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA. U. vS. A. 



of the library has been made by the 
legislature, and at present it is iniprov^- 
ing and growing rapidly. Books from 
this library are not permitted to be 
taken away, but may be freely used 
in the spacious reading room connected 
with the institution in the State House. 
The Indiana Law Library is one of 
the most complete law libraries in the 



State libraries. It now contains over 
fifteen thousand volumes. A set of all 
the laws of all the States in the Union 
is one of its cherished collections. This 
library is provided with all the funds 
nece.s.sary to keep it fully abreast of the 
legal progress of the age, and to add 
to it from time to time such rare 
and valuable works as mav be secured. 




First B.\ptist Church. 

country. It bears this reputation away This library, too, is in the State House, 

from home, and it is a common occur- The Marion County Law Library, of 

rence for judges and attorneys in neigh- eight thousand volumes, is in the Court 

boring States to write to the librarian House, w4iere it is accessible to the 

of the Indiana library for information bar of the city. This is an excel- 

which they can not find in their own lent working library, and, in ordinary 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



207 



practice, is all that is ever needed. In 
addition to those libraries are the Marion 
County Library of general literature, con- 
taining about four thousand volumes, 
and the Center Township Library, with 
twelve hundred volumes. Butler Uni- 
versity has an excellent library of sev- 
eral thousand volumes. There are, also, 
several other valuable libraries, public 
or semi-public in character, in the city. 
In its literary clubs, Indianapolis is 
as rich as in its libraries. There are too 
many of these societies to enumerate all 
in these pages, but all are worthy of 
praise, because they have the intellectual 
improvement of their members for their 
prime object. As a rule the clubs meet 
weekly or fortnightly, and, at each meet- 



ing, discuss carefully prepared papers 
upon topics of which an intelligent com- 
prehension can not be obtained without 
diligent study. The leaders of advanced 
thought in the community are members 
of literary clubs, and in this number are 
several men and women whose fame in 
literature or public life is as wide as the 
continent. 

Still the growth in culture and appre- 
ciation of literature goes on. The libra- 
ries and clubs which spring from these 
sources themselves become the most 
effective agencies in giving new and 
stronger impetus to the movement. The 
pa.st and present have brought gratifying 
results. The future is bright with the 
promise of a yet greater iuflueuce. 




Public I,inR.\K\-. 



CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS. 




'S a community Indianapolis is sym- 
metrical and well rounded. She 
has not given her attention to any 
especial factors of development to 
the exclusion of others. While busy with 
her manufactures and her commerce and 
all that pertains to her material welfare, 
she has not failed to make ample pro- 
vision for her mental and spiritual needs. 
Of her churches and her schools she is as 
proud as of her railroac s and her natural 
gas. She is careful that every citizen 
shall have free opportunity to secure an 
education and to acquire and foster the 
invaluable virtues which are the cardi- 
nal elements of Christianity. 

In all, Indianapolis has about one 
hundred and twenty-five organized 
churches and over one hundred houses 
of worship. Many of these buildings 
are types of the most elegant styles of 
church architecture, and millions of dol- 
lars have been expended in the erection 
of church property. The denominations 
which are strongest are the Methodist 
Episcopal, Presbyterian Baptist, Roman 
Catholic, Protestant Episcopal and Chris- 
tian, and there are numerous others 
which have one or more congregations 
each in the city. Some of the most 
eloquent and eminent divines which the 
country has produced have passed a part 
of their lives in Indianapolis. One in- 
stance is the years of Henry Ward 
Beecher's pastorate here, and another 
the seven years during which Myron 



W. Reed was numbered among this 
city's ministers. 

One of the more notable facts con- 
cerning the Indianapolis churches, is the 
spirit of Christian fellowship and good- 
will which animates them. Sectional lines 
are never drawn tightly enough to pre- 
vent all denominations from joining heart- 
ily in any good work which needs their 
combined effort. Catholic and Protestant 
and Jew unite on equal terms and work 
for the general benefit of the public. 
One result of their joint labors is seen in 
the remarkable efficency and 
scope of the Charity Organiza- 
tion Society, which, under its 
broad mantle, gathers the vari- 
ous charitable societies and in- 
stitutions of the city into one 
composite whole, and so distrib- 
utes the work to be done that 
each organization supplements 
and rounds out to completeness 
the others. In the provision , 
which she has_ 
made for the" 
education of 
her children, 
Indianapolis 
takes especial 
pride. The es- 
teem in which 
her p u b 1 ic 
school system 
is held away 
irom home is 3E-cfMBrsE<,B<'tFifiAN(Mup.t.. 





High School No. 2. 




High School No. i. 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



indicated by the frequent calls which 
other cities make upon this for teachers 
in their schools. It has become so com- 
mon as to hardly cause remark for the 
school authorities of other cities to write 
to the superintendent of the Indianapolis 
schools to send them teachers. These 
requests come from all over the country, 
and to-day there is scarcely a large city, 
from San Francisco to New York, in 
whose schools Indianapolis teachers have 
not been an influence for good. This 
reputation of our schools and teachers 
arises from the attention given to thor- 
ough methods of teaching and to school 
management. Every teacher has con- 
stantly the hope of promotion, urging to 
the highest excellence of work. The 
whole system of salaries and grades is 
so arranged that faithful, efficient service 
will be rewarded. 

There are forty school buildings in 
the city public school system, over three 
hundred and fifty teachers, and the 
number of pupils enrolled on the first 
day of March, 1892, was fifteen thou- 
sand, four hundred and sixty-three. The 
growth of the city is so rapid that every 
year the number of teachers is increased 
and new school houses are necessary. 

What may be called the skeleton, or 
perhaps basis is the better term, of the 
school system, is a course of study ex- 
tending over a series of twelve years, 
or twenty-four half years. The year of 
the course in which a pupil is, is des- 
ignated by a number, and the half year 
by a letter. The first half of a year is in- 
dicated by "B" and the .second half by 



"A." The years of the course begin at 
"i," and run up to "12." For instance, 
when a child first enters school it begins 
as a "iB" pupil. After half a year, if 
it makes reasonable progress, it is pro- 
moted a step, and becomes a " lA" 
pupil. The next step is to the " 2B" 
grade, which is the first half of the 
second year. Then following along in 
regular succession come the grades 
"2A," "3B," "3A," "46," "4A," "5B," 
"5A," etc., until the last year of the 
high school course is recorded as "12A." 
Except for clerical purpo.ses, the four 
years of the high school course are sel- 
dom referred to in this way, but are 
commonly spoken of as the first, second, 
third and fourth years of high school. 
In the high school buildings are de- 
partments which are called annexes 
These are in the nature of overflow 
schools, where pupils of the higher 
grades are sent from such ward schools 
as are overcrowded. The annexes are 
really distinct schools, and are under the 
charge of principals independent of the 
high school principals. Manual training, 
which has become one of the important 
factors in the schools within a few 
years, is taught in a department of its 
own, but in close relation with the high 
schools. What might perhaps be prop- 
erly called manual training is taught to 
the pupils from their first year up. It 
consists of various exercises for the pur- 
pose of training the little "wobbly" 
hands to do their bidding with steadi- 
ness and accuracy. These exercises are 
also contrived to teach colors, and 



!I2 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



ideas of proportion and sviiinietry. The 
policy of the school authorities has 
long been to choose their teachers, 
in large part, from persons who are 
graduates of the home schools. This 
policy led to the establishment of a 
normal school, for the training of grad- 



to its classes annually from among the 
graduates of the high school of the 
preceding year as many of those best 
suited by education and nature for teachers 
as are likely to be needed to fill vacan- 
cies in the teachers' force on the follow- 
ing vear. As the normal school is in- 




Tabernacle Presbyterian Chi-rch. 

nates of the schools to re-enter them as tended oid\- to train teachers for the home 

teachers. Thus it is that a very large schools, the number of pupils in its 

per cent, of the teachers in the Indiana- classes at any given time is not large, 

polls ward schools received their educa- A new class is admitted each half year, 

tion in the same schools in which they and the course consists of one year of 

are now employed. The theory of the study of the theory and practice of 

normal school management is to admit teaching and kindred subjects, followed 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



213 



by half a year of actual practice in 
teaching in the schools. Admission to 
the normal school is a guarantee of a 
position as teacher later, if the pupil 
completes the course. The result of this 
arrangement is that there is always a 
small attendance upon the normal school, 
ranging perhaps from twenty to thirty, 
and always a large number of applicants 
for admission. 

The teachers in the high schools are 
not selected from the srraduates of the 



normal school are discriminated against 
in the choice of teachers for the high 
schools, but that the teachers for those 
schools are usually persons who have 
had the benefit of a more advanced edu- 
cation than the city schools can give. 

There is one prime object to be 
sought for in the conduct of the city 
school system. That is that happy 
medium which allows enough of freedom 
and latitude to meet the individual re- 
quirements of the pupils, and j'et pre- 




Rhsidence on North Mhriui.vn- Street. 

normal school, but are usually brought serves enough of clock-work system and 

from other cities, or chosen from the rigidity to insure thoroughness and dis- 

alunini of colleges and universities. This cipline. 
does not mean that the graduates of the The efficiency and number of schools 







u 

Bi 

a 



J- 

•J3 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



215 



which Indianapolis possesses, in addition 
to those belonging to the pnblic school 
system, is also a matter of pride. These 
are of several classes. The most import- 
ant is Butler University, which is the chief 
seat of learning controlled by the Chris- 
tian denomination west of the Alleghany 
Mountains. The university has a large 



The Indianapolis School of Music is 
one of the later educational institutions 
to be established in the city, and one 
of the most successful. Eminent instruct- 
ors have been brought from across the At- 
lantic, and the school carries its pupils to 
the highest degree of skill and knowledge 
of which the}' are capable. Almost akin 




ImdianAPoliS 

and growing endownent, and is well 
equipped with handsome, commodious 
buildings. It is situated in a beautiful 
campus in the suburban village of Ir- 
vington. A strong faculty is employed, 
and the institution draws students from 
many States. The number of students 
in attendance last year was about three 
hundred. 



to the School of Music in its puposes 
is the Indianapolis School of Art. Here 
painting, sketching, pen-drawing, model- 
ing, etc., are taught by artists who have 
won fame in their own especial lines of 
work. The school is controlled and 
maintained by an association of liberal cit- 
izens who desire to foster a love and ap- 
preciation of the best in art in their com- 



2l6 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, U. S. A. 



muiiity. Then there are medical colleges, 
five of tlieiii, and all well patronized from 
home and abroad. The Indiana Medical 
College, which is more widely known, 
perhaps, than any of the others, has a 
liberal endowment and a large facult}-. 
It has grown rapidly in the last few 
years, and its students, iu the winter of 
1891-92, numbered about one hundred 
and fifty. The course of study is as 
long and as thorough as that in any of 
the famous medical colleges in the East, 
and its graduates have become eminent 
in the profession as teachers and practi- 
tioners. 

The girls schools connected with the 
Catholic churches are popular and at- 
tended by many pupils from distant 
parts of the country. St. John's and St. 
Mary's Academies are especially well 
known and esteemed. In connection 



with Grace Cathedral, the official resi- 
dence of the Bishop of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church for the Diocese of 
Indiana, is an academy bearing the name 
of St. Mary's Hall. It is a high class 
.school for girls. The institution, known 
as the Girls' Classical School, is also a 
school of wide reputation and liberal 
patronage. In addition to the schools 
mentioned are many others of merit. 
There are schools of elocution, of stenog- 
raphy, business colleges and the like in 
great number. 

Indianapolis is so well equipped with 
schools that her children need not go 
beyond her gates to secure a thorough 
education. Whether that education be 
classical or professional, musical, artistic 
or industrial, matters not ; it may be 
carried on at home to a degree of excel- 
lence surpassed at few places. 






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